Ain’t I A Woman
100 silk stitched handkerchiefs, silk thread,dimensions variable, 2010
The provoking question of a mid-nineteenth century slave woman Ain’t I A Woman is not only the title of Anila Rubiku’s installation of a hundred embroidered handkerchiefs, but also stands for the biography of one hundred women—such as Simone de Beauvoire, Judy Chicago, Bertha von Suttner or Elfriede Jelinek—who have influenced our society, politics, arts and sciences up to the present day. Rubiku had the individual handkerchiefs embroidered by Albanian women with a request that they concern themselves with the relevant biography. The artist gave them the biographies to read in order to impact with the women’s subconscious and engender a state of self-reflection and inner translation.
Karin Pernegger