Andrea Dezos

"my sister was a rubber accident." The latter image includes a blue condom surrounded by beaded spermatozoa with wriggling metallic-thread tails.Such homey and intimate details recall Philip Larkin's pithy lament: "They fuck you up, your mum and dad"
R.C. Baker --The Village Voice

"folk wisdom - conjours the dark heart of Transylvanian womanhood'




http://a.parsons.edu/~dezsoa/index.html




Dezos is a Romanian artist. Her work most relevant to mine is the embroidery.

Each piece from 'Lessons From My Mother' starts 'My Mother Claimed That' and follows with more often than not, a scare mongering, highly speculative, suspicious - superstitious belief.

I can just imagine the artist's mother as a stoic old woman with little sense of humour and a penchant for sharing 'too much information'. She delivers this in an off handed manner as though the recipient is supposed to learn a lesson rather than be embarrassed. Although secretly she would find this a little amusing. Maybe privately smiling at her daughter's look of horror. Sometimes she would let a small laugh somewhere between glee and a chest infection and slap her hand on the heavy oak table.

do they even have oak trees in Romania?

More to the point. Rachel found me this artist as the stitching and regular imagery of bodies reminded her of the recent work i've been doing. There is a clear juxtaposition however, as Dezos' work lends from traditional embroidery samplers -

http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/cms/wp-content/gallery/belongings/people/williams/images/embroidery.jpg

like this, where as i feel mine looks more like New Age hippie bullshit. However I am most conscious of this due to previously being told that I'm vegetarian because i have dreadlocks/look a bit New Age hippie bullshitty.

MORE to the point. The quality of the stiching is interesting. Mine is machine embroidered because i avoid anything that has to be hand sewn like the plague. In some ways i hope that sewing can be seen as more of a drawing tool than constantly refering to the historical context of women sewing women sewing women sewing which i am sick of. If i ever show my work anywhere, i think to avoid this 'so why do you sew and what contexts do you think this lends to your work?' question i will shoot a water gun at anyone who asks me. There will be pre warning though. I don't want to super soak someone and seem rude. On the other hand, if it is a hot day then people might ask me this question more and more. I'd better fill it with ketchup.

This is starting to sound more like a blog than a research file.

Obviously, the artist's actual mother may not have been this person. But even so, the persona feels resonant (if not a little stereotypical..) of Eastern European ethics and morals. I like the handed down with a little fear-on-the-side feel. The 'fear of God' kind of fear. If you replace 'God' with the worry of not getting married and producing lots of offspring for you mother and you life failing because of this. Disappointment, shame etc. But maybe the scaring that comes with the information, echoes the fears of the one passing it.

The formality of the work holds interesting qualities. These look like the sort of thing old Romanian women might hang in their houses. But these ones are slightly warped. Almost making fun of, but also tributing them.
as if the artist as a young girl believed her mother until she grew up, went west and saw her sheltered life for what it was. At first she felt deprived and tricked, but after a while she saw her mother's actions as protecting.