Group Exhibitions

Pricked: Extreme Embroidery
Museum of Art and Design
New York, New York
November 8, 2007 – March 9, 2008

Curated by David Revere McFadden

When we received the call from David Revere McFadden—Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design—it felt like a moment. He was working on a new series of exhibitions exploring process and materiality and invited us to be part of Pricked: Extreme Embroidery. The show was a bold exploration of the needle as a subversive, expressive, and experimental tool.

At the time, we were expanding our work from handbags and accessories into more sculptural territory—pieces that referenced function but were never meant to be functional. For Pricked, we created a large-scale soft sculpture titled Spiderag, a name that stuck from its arched, limb-like structure and stitched intensity.

The piece was made from cashmere scraps—offcuts from garments we were constructing by hand—and layered using catch stitch techniques. The threads were gifted to us by Chris Finley’s grandmother, and the piece became an act of tribute, preservation, and accumulation. Each layer was hand-stitched to the next, slowly building volume and tension. The result was a double-sided cashmere vessel, domed and scooped, with a central handle-like form that invited touch, even if it was never meant to be carried.

We made a large ultrasuede-lined blue box to hold the work. It was a soft, serious thing—an object of labor and history and humor—and it sat in conversation with embroidered pieces by Louise Bourgeois, Andrea Dezsö, and dozens of artists rethinking what embroidery could be.