The Secret and the Stitch: Annet Couwenberg, Inside and Out

Abstract

Annet Couwenberg's newest work with what she calls “relational fabric” has provided her with a platform from which to explore intercultural and transnational relations through the materiality of clothing and collaborative processes. On the one hand, such projects—the most recent carried out with Muslim women in the artist's native Rotterdam—mark her departure from a previous focus on sculptural, textile-related art installations. On the other hand, this new direction continues to reflect Couwenberg's signature interest, dating from her childhood in the Netherlands, in how interactions with fabric raise important cultural questions about one's experience of the private and the public, interior and exterior, here and there. This article examines the ways in which Couwenberg has consistently expressed these concepts through two powerful metaphors: the secret and the stitch.

Keywords:

• fabric
• collaboration
• transnationalism
• skin
• touch
• relational aesthetics