Delicate lace-edged handkerchiefs, soft and pristine white gloves, and little doilies are the objects and symbols of a prim and proper world that Yarmouth-based artist Allison Cooke Brown wants to escape from. Her form of rebellion? Stitching, embroidering, and assembling – all done with a subversive slant that is instantly thought-provoking and endlessly intriguing.

Her fiber art and artist’s books challenge traditional ideals of femininity, drawing from the artist’s own experiences. The universality of her work is touching, but never pedestrian. Her inspirations rooted in the domestic sphere recall old-time New England and strict Victoriana, making her modern statements of rebellion and individuality even more poignant.

Until October 31, Whitney Art Works is showing Home Work, a fascinating exhibition featuring 4 artists, including Allison, who use sewing as a medium to communicate their own ideas about femininity and woman’s work. Allison was kind enough to talk to me about her work at the Whitney, her foray into the underworld of tattooing, and her thoughts on rigid gender roles.

Jamie: For your pieces in Home Work at Whitney Art Works, you solicited tattoo designs from tattoo artists around New England. Tell me more about the process. What was it like to enter a world you are unfamiliar with? What did you learn and how did the experience inform your work?

Allison: I’m a fiber artist, and had been working a lot with old linens and was thinking about what they signified, a different culture, a different era. My attraction to themes of dichotomies led me to the idea of sewing tattoos onto the opposite edge of the lacy corner of old white linen napkins in black. I wanted this project to be a documentary of current tattoo artists, and tried to find as many as I could who would draw a design for me to stitch. It was hard work over a few months’ time locating shops and following up with many visits and phone calls. Many artists did not want to do this but I really believed in this project and wanted to make it happen so I kept finding new shops, enlarging the circle to eventually traveling all the way to Boston.

Entering the shops was a little bit intimidating, with a sense of danger in some cases. Such a different culture from what I have lived in. But once I started talking with them, I ended up getting to know a lot of really cool men and women some of whom told me about the world of tattoos, which was a nice by-product of this project. I liked the conceptual element as well, our interacting with each other from our 2 corners of the same world, as it were. Each of the 24 napkins is accompanied by a write-up of that particular artist, his/her age, shop name, and something about why they chose that profession. This record was a very important part of the project for me.

I have really enjoyed sewing the tattoo designs as well as imagining other linens where tattoo designs would be provocative, like prim cotton gloves for instance. So, I’ve had some fun with that. I’m not sure I’m done. There’s something special about my stitching tattoo designs onto cloth with a needle, much like the tattoo artist pierces the customer’s skin with his…

J: What does your art for Home Work mean to you? What does it communicate about traditional gender roles; how does it challenge those conventions?

A: Home Work implies working in the home, which is traditionally a woman’s role. I associate this with domestic materials (like linen doilies), women’s apparel that suggest femininity (gloves or frilly cuffs), and the “work” of sewing or knitting. I like to insert elements or ideas into my pieces that question this expected role of behavior, like sewing or writing words that are opposite of being what was considered a woman’s role as primarily a compliant one.

J: I have always been very interested in how your work is subtly subversive: it looks very prim and proper, but the messages underneath are usually quite rebellious. Can you tell me more about that?

A: I grew up in a really traditional Calvinist New England family and culture where it was expected that we would act in strict proscribed acceptable ways. Adding to this was that my father worked at an ultra-preppy all boys’ boarding school in Connecticut, and I grew up as one of only 3 girls living on campus. It was intimidating to say the least, and definitely caused me to want to keep a low profile and to not be noticed. It was all quite constricting.

From the beginning, there has always been a personal struggle going on between what was expected of me and who I truly am on the inside. I’m still trying to resolve these issues, and the dichotomies inherent in my work speak to this.

J: The intersection of words and abstract images is prevalent in your work, for example, embroidered words on a handkerchief or a pair of gloves instantly conjure up certain images that relate to the object they are printed upon. Can you tell me more about that?

A: When I come upon an object or an idea, it’s important that one must connect in a strong way conceptually to the other. So I find myself asking what does an object imply/signify? And how can I identify this? By using specific words and images, and in terms of “fonts” that I use, handwriting implies a journaling element while stitching reflects a certain domestic and feminine duty. I especially like the sampler-style stitched alphabet. Samplers were used in the 19th century to keep a little girl busy and to inculcate her with certain ways she should obey and conform. So, any words I stitch in this style could be seen as “instructive” either in a positive or negative way.

J: Can you expand on the materials and techniques you work with, and tell me why you choose to work with the media that you do?

A: Sewing with materials of a domestic origin comes naturally to me. I learned sewing and knitting from my wonderful grandmother who lived with us. This was my creative outlet and a way of losing myself in the joy of making. It’s logical that I’ve become a female artist questioning a woman’s expected good behavior by using domestic materials and the activity of her sewing. All of those elements inform each other.

J: How does your work help you define or reconcile your own experiences with gender roles and expectations?

A: I’d say that my art is all about my wrestling with what I feel that society has proscribed as the ideal feminine behavior of being a “good girl” and conformist versus my need to “act out”, to become my own person. It’s an interior war that is still going on even in my middle age.

J: Do you have any new projects or exhibitions coming up that you can tell me about?

A: There are some plans in the works. What I’m doing right now is taking apart a section in old lacy doilies and “mending” them with crude crochet stitches. Those 2 worlds again…

All images courtesy of Allison Cooke Brown