Stitches in Time

Photography, embroidery, sculpture, architecture, installation, video: Dutch artist Berend Strik (Nijmegen, 1960) uses different media in his work. He is best known for the embroidered work he started making in the late eighties. Strik bases his work on photographs – from a family archive, for instance, or books and magazines, or else or images encountered during his travels. He proceeds to stitch over these images and adds patches of fabric. In doing so, he intervenes in the meaning within an image and in the image itself. He alters the narrative, plays with historic atmospheres and art history clichés and uses autobiographical details to express something he feels is universal. Berend Strik • Stitches in Time presents work inspired by his travels to Tanzania, Mali and South-Africa: pictures of schools, landscapes and portraits are stitched over in soft colours. The book shows recent embroidery works and four sensual, kaleidoscopic objects.

Contributors: Matilda McQuaid, Berend Strik
Design: Thonik 2008, Valiz | supported by supported by Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York, Mondriaan Fund | paperback | 48 pp. | 30 x 22 cm (h x w) | English | ISBN 978-90-78088-23-3