Embroidery gives Ningxia women hope for a future

 

One of the exhibited artworks - "My Airplane" - and its crafts women from Ningxia. Photo provided by Yishu 8 Gallery

 

By Zhang Dongya

“Embroidery is the basis of a young girl’s education, something every woman in our village can do,” Ding Ting, a craftswoman from Ningxia, said at the closure of a Yishu 8 Gallery exhibition last Friday. “I never thought it could fetch so much money.”

The exhibition, “Textile Dreams,” designed by Chinese artist Wen Fang and embroidered by a group of women in Ningxia, sold for more than 100,000 yuan after being displayed for 20 days. Half of the revenue will be transferred to the female workers of the Hundred Flowers of Magaozhuang, supported by Women of Ningxia (Femmes Du Ningxia), a French NGO that helps Ningxia women turn a profit from embroidery.

“I am trying to find a way to do more for people in destitute and isolated people,” Wen said, “other than producing artwork that uses them as central characters.”

Wen, 34, has previously focused her artwork on migrant workers, orphans and the homeless. “They made me successful, but I always felt ashamed,” she said. “I want to do more for them, beyond just raising questions and making critiques through my works.”

Wen got to know a group of female embroiderers in Ningxia from Women of Ningxia and soon began her project. She wanted to create art using the locals’ embroidery and then pay them back after selling the final products.

The project started earlier this year in Xihaigu, the driest area in Ningxia, with seven impoverished counties participating. One of the counties was Tongxin County, where Women of Ningxia is located.

Wen said there is very little economic development there. Most women do not have jobs, leaving them at home to take care of children and the elderly. Without an independent income, women are kept at an inferior social position, and many suffer domestic abuse.

“They are good at embroidery, passed down from generation to generation, but their products are too traditional – they aren’t accepted by modern society – so the market is very small,” Wen said.

Wen spent more than a month working with members of Hundred Flowers of Magaozhuang in Tongxin. As many as 15 craftswomen participated in the production of the artwork.

Wen brought materials from Beijing, including cotton, hemp and gold thread, because “local cloth is not that good for creating art.”

They created 23 pieces, all by hand. The pieces mix modern designs with local traditional elements. A set of works called Couronne consists of two garlands made with dozens of shoe-pads – the most representative of local embroidery.

Craftswomen are paid by the hour, and they also share a portion of the exhibition’s revenue.

“It widens our views and it increases our income,” Ding said. “We earned over 1,000 yuan within a month of working with Wen.”

Ding, 34, from Tongxin’s Liumiao Village, joined the Hundred Flowers of Magaozhuang when it was founded in 2007. She is now in charge of the association. Ding said she had no previous jobs before accepting a position in the association, only relying on her husband. They embroidered things like shoe-pads, handbags and earmuffs at home, but only for daily use.

After joining the association, Ding received training in management and marketing. Despite only having a junior high diploma, she had a knack for learning. In Beijing, Ding, along with the association’s accountant, will receive further training at the Practical Skills Training Center of Rural Women in Changping District, the first non-profit school established for rural women.

At the exhibition, Wen used handmade embroidery to create artworks linked to sustainable development. There were five pieces embroidered with red silk thread representing pervasive garbage and litter. The pieces all play on the strong contrast between modernity and tradition, mass production and traditional handicraft, garbage and art.

Wen said she would continue to cooperate with the craftswomen in Hundred Flowers and consider bringing all the women to the exhibition next time.

“Art is about resolving problems through creative ways – that is my understanding of art,” Wen said. “I hope the project can spare future generations of women hardship and poverty.”