Embroidery Portraits

11/01/2014 — couleurblind

Melissa Zexter combines hand-stitched embroidery with photography. Using photographs she has taken herself, she sews onto them, irreversibly altering the image by adding a new layer. She uses an ancient form of art, embroidery, refracted through a modern one, photography, to create structured objects that are embodiments of both fragmentation and focused concentration. The sewn patterns and intricate puzzles are colored textured drawings, which serve as webs and grids over the photographs, providing another dimension to the images. Her multi-dimensional portraits overflow with a sense of nostalgia and personal resonance.