The Art of Domesticity

Selvedge had a short article on Primmy Chorley's work in one of its issues last year. Apart from the work itself, her house had something of the flavour of quiet domesticity. Sort of domesticity as philosophy i.e. it is not the craft itself that is important but how the quotidian rituals of domesticity lend meaning to life. It also put me in mind of certain kinds of films (Brodeuses, Scent of the Green Papaya) that focus on the minutiae and repetitiveness of women's work to give it something of a Zen like quality. All a far cry from the writings of Friedan or de Beauvoir where domestic work is a punishment, a repetitive set of oppressive tasks as opposed to the masculine world of action. I am torn between the two because I am attracted to both. Or maybe its just a matter of age. In youth you flow outward into the world and its many possibilities. As you grow older, domestic tasks become soothing, perhaps the reason both sexes tend to garden in later life. Anyway, more than Chorley's work, I liked the quietude that seemed to flow from the article.

Chorley's daughter is also a craftsperson and her work is a bit whimsical and also in tune with modern preoccupations like incorporating fragments and found things into "memory" pieces. Her work is mainly constructed books (the picture on the left is a detail from one of her "books" I think). Picture on the right is Primmy Chorley's "Dolls" sourced from the link provided above.