Interview with Allyson Mitchell
Astria Suparak
QUEER THREADS: Crafting Identity and Community
2017
“On a good day, I see the use of humor in art as an empowered strategy. It works as a kind of seduction to pull folks together into a collective experience, to engage, to get the joke, to feel intelligent. But jokes are usually a bizarre, ‘softer’ way to tell the truth with a smile or a snort. On a bad day, the ‘joke’ can feel like an attempt to over-accommodate misogynists, lesbophobes, or sexophobes. The humor can feel like a kind of self-loathing through clown tactics that makes haters feel comfortable.” – Allyson Mitchell speaking to Astria Suparak in Queer Threads
Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community spotlights an international, intergenerational, intersectional mix of thirty artists who are remixing fiber craft traditions, such as crochet, embroidery, quilting, and sewing, while reconsidering the binaries of art and craft, masculine and feminine, and gay and straight.
Designed by Todd Oldham and edited by John Chaich, this 192-page, hardcover, 8 x 10-inch book features full-color spreads of each artist’s work, along with intimate details of selections and artist studios.
To further examine how queerness informs their work in fiber and textiles, or vice versa, the artists are interviewed by makers and thinkers from the worlds of dance, design, fashion, media, music, museums, scholarship, and more—many members of the LGBTQ community themselves, and otherwise passionate allies.
Queer Threads is not just an exploration of fiber art and crafts, but also a celebration of the creativity, diversity, and vibrancy of contemporary queer culture.
Contributors include:
Nayland Blake, Justin Vivian Bond, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Nick Cave, Liz Collins, Michael Cunningham, Josh Faught, Mondo Guerra, Tim Gunn, Harmony Hammond, Kathleen Hanna, Bill T. Jones, Larry Krone, Glenn Ligon, Allyson Mitchell, Sheila Pepe, Jeighdie Samson, Lowery Stokes Sims, Debbie Stoller, Astria Suparak, Mickalene Thomas, Jeanne Vaccaro
QUEER THREADS: Crafting Identity and Community
Editor: John Chaich
Designer: Todd Oldham
Publisher: AMMO Books, Los Angeles
Hardcover | 8 x 10 inches | 192 pages
9781623261054 | MARCH 2017
To order: http://www.ammobooks.com/products/queerthreads
2018 Stonewall Book Award – Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award by the American Library Association
2018 Lambda Literary LGBTQ Non-Fiction Finalist
PRESS
American Craft Council: “New and Noteworthy Craft Books in 2017,” Jessica Shaykett, December 26, 2016
Art F City: “This Week’s Must-See Art Events,” Michael Anthony Farley, May 8, 2017
Axxidental: “Book | Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community,” April 6, 2017
Dallas Voice: “Beyond the quilt,” Arnold Wayne Jones, June 16, 2017
KCET Artbound: “Queer Fiber Artists Push the Bounds of Gender Norms,” Victoria Looseleaf, June 12, 2017
La Nacion: “Arte para la biblioteca,” Daniel Gigena, March 16, 2017
Logo: NewNowNext: “Exploring Queer Identity Through Crochet And Macramé,” Cody Gohl, April 17, 2017
Los Angeles Times: “The Saturday gallery: Grandma’s knitting infused with fabulousness in ‘Queer Threads’,” Craig Nakano, July 1, 2017
OUT Magazine:
“[T]his book is too colorful and rich to pass up. These 30 artists are transforming the way we see and make fiber crafts via mixed and tantalizing use of crochet, embroidery, quilting and sewing. The book includes interviews of the artists by creatives in the worlds of dance, design, fashion, media, music, museums, scholarship and more.” – Lenny Gerard, “These Talented Queer Fiber Artists Will Blow You Away,” November 2, 2017
Paper Magazine: “11 MUST-SEE ART SHOWS OPENING THIS WEEK,” Gary Pini, May 10, 2017
Textiel Plus: “Boeken,” Dorothé S. Winkels, 2017
Washington Blade:
“To elaborate on how queerness has influenced their fiber and textile work, the artists are interviewed by renowned leaders in creative fields” – Will Owen, “Spring Arts 2017: Books,” March 3, 2017
Women’s Wear Daily (WWD): “Todd Oldham, John Chaich Explore the ‘Queerness’ of Fiber Art in New Book,” Alexa Tietjen, May 16, 2017
Astria Suparak 