CAREN GARFEN

WAFER THIN, 2012

SELECTED

Wafer Thin centres on the throes of dieting and takes the form of a paper towel roll. It begins fat and rounded and as it unwinds gets thinner and thinner. At its core, hidden from view, is ‘Stick Thin’ which lists the extremes dieting can reach when obsession takes over. 

Wafer Thin has a hand stitched upper and lower border made up of measurement tallies one would find on a tape measure. The upper border has a never-ending list of diets, all taken from four women’s weekly magazines, (Best, Bella, Woman and Woman’s Own), collected over the course of one year (2010-2011).  There is emphasis on the ridiculous obsession of women’s magazines which constantly publish articles pertaining to women’s bodies and dieting.

The lower hand stitched border has text taken from Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach. 

Caren Garfen integrates the text wittily with the imagery, for example replacing familiar logos on everyday items with her own observations. Sara Impey, Text in Textile Art

A weight, date and time, as if taken from the ‘sell-by’ dates from food packaging, but in reality from a young woman’s blogspot in which she marks her weight - she weighs herself obsessively almost every day.  And in turn, this information was obsessively stitched onto each sheet.

This section is hand stitched in black and lists the extremes of dieting and eating disorders and is hidden within the heart of this piece.

Measurement: 10m x 34cm

Process: Hand stitch, hand drawing, photographic silkscreen printing

Materials: Textile, silk threads, kitchen towel holder

Exhibited in:

62 Group Package Tour, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London (2012)

62 Group Package Tour, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Dublin, Ireland (2012)

62 Group Package Tour, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate, North Yorkshire (2012)

Construct, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, North Wales (2014)

She Was Cooking Something Up, Solo Gallery, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Alexandra Palace, London (2014)

She Was Cooking Something Up, Solo Gallery, The Knitting & Stitching Show, Harrogate, North Yorkshire (2014)

British Textiles Exhibition, 62@50, SHOWA Women’s University, Tokyo, Japan (2014/15)

Textile Art of Today, Touring Exhibition, Slovak Museum, Czech Republic (2015)

Textile Art of Today, Touring Exhibition, Romer Floris Art & History Museum, Hungary (2015)

Textile Art of Today, Touring Exhibition,Historical Museum, Poland (2015) 

Textile Art of Today, Touring Exhibition, Gallery, Slovakia (2016)