Jennifer Drinkwater: I view the world as a semi-objective ethnographer and use my art practice to unpack, process, and critique what I notice. This results in work that shifts and morphs from project to project. T168 Hours consists of 12 individually framed cross-stitched images, each of which is a life-size replica (10.5” x 7.5”) of a previously issued popular magazine cover.
In 2013, I began168 Hours, a long-term embroidered archive of 24 life-size replicas of two of the most popular weekly magazines in the United States, Time and People. This project uses a slow, simple process of recreating a popular cultural image with thousands of tiny cross-stitches. The work explores the relationship between careful preservation and disposable cycles of information. The selections are not chosen according to content; instead they are topical, cycled every two months. The individual pieces are displayed in pairs according to the date of release, which is included in the title of each piece. Juxtaposing images creates a broader documentation of our culture and invites viewers to formulate their own perceptions.
There are several interesting parallels between the form and content of these pieces. The stitch replaces the pixel, which interrupts the seamless imagery to reveal each cover as an elaborate construction. The slow process of stitching is a meditation Finally, the 168 hours that each issue traditionally spends on the newsstand coincides with the number of hours I spend stitching each cover. These hours are simultaneously short and long.
I have exhibited this work in juried solo and group exhibitions all over the United States. Additionally, two pieces from this body of work will be featured in the annual juried Exhibition-in-Print issue of the Surface Design Association journal, an international textile publication.
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