| Orly Cogan’s work is an irreverent take on the conventions of femininity. She stitches figures on dainty vintage fabrics. These found linens, which once served as table runners, bureau scarves and tablecloths in a more modest age, were already embroidered once by an earlier and more circumscribed generation of women. Cogan adds to these a layer of attitude that updates what was once considered an old-fashioned womanly craft with a kind of happy-go-lucky postmodern perversity such as hand sewn pubic hair. |  |
Orly Cogan
Orly Cogan’s work is an irreverent take on the conventions of femininity. She stitches figures on dainty vintage fabrics. These found linens, which once served as table runners, bureau scarves and tablecloths in a more modest age, were already embroidered once by an earlier and more circumscribed generation of women.
Cogan adds to these a layer of attitude that updates what was once considered an old-fashioned womanly craft with a kind of happy-go-lucky postmodern perversity such as hand sewn pubic hair. Even the words provoke unease and curiosity, the desire to stroke the obscene with a tender hand. She creates a dialogue using the vintage fabrics as two-way mirrors into the like-minded fantasies of competing generations.
Cogan’s figures—often female heroines, allude to their anxieties, insecurities and desires through visual narratives. These narratives have both a tactile and symbolic presence, transforming "women’s work" into something beautiful, evocative and unexpected. For example, In Allegory, a mix of embroidery and paint on a pale vintage tablecloth, a group of women are gathered like saints and angles in an ochre-flowered celestial-like realm where the night sky is dotted with deeply pink areolas and thick embroidered hair. The women simultaneously embrace, and ignore each other to their own liking. The age and scale of each woman varies, creating a seemingly randomized hierarchy that hints at a state of constant flux between each woman’s assertive and passive role. In another piece, Fairy Tale, Alice in Wonderland in her Mary Janes can hang out innocently with handsome nude guys.
Most of the figures are characters from Cogan’s life. Her boyfriend, family members and friends mingle with storybook characters creating a kind of public intimacy. Cogan cheerfully mixes things up, collapsing time and history as she combines the past with the present. By co-opting the labors of some earnest homemaker from an earlier era. Cogan honors her handiwork as she incorporate it into the blithe frolics of the 21st century.
