We are so conditioned into passive acceptance of pornographic imagery in the media that we oftentimes overlook the important role of language in pornography.  Vignettes is a series of large mill-woven tapestries examining pornographic language by separating it from its imagery. Titles of streaming online videos from the website  pornhub.com are woven among majestic, photo-realistic landscapes. These stark contrasts – the purity of the landscapes and the brutality of the phrases – are intensified through the sensual medium of cloth, with which we all have intimate familiarity.

 

By separating these phrases from their visual contexts, their degrading, sexist, and violent qualities are revealed. The usage of such language is not arbitrary or context-specific; rather, it reflects our societal concept about the position of women in particular, and about the extent of our voyeuristic privilege.

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Artist interviews about Vignettes can be found on Curatorial Collective and refigural.