Jess De Wahls: Stitching her stance
Life has not always been straightforward for the artist Jess De Wahls. That’s because she isn’t afraid to confront controversial issues in her work or to challenge preconceived ideas about the artistic merit of embroidery. As you will see, her images pack an unexpected punch. While the familiarity of the embellished surface draws us in, it’s the intelligence and fierce wit, evident in her compositions, that stops us in our tracks. Here is an artist with something to say.
From intimate thread sketches to large, impactful embroidered pieces, the artworks Jess makes are confident, setting themselves apart from the concept of embroidery as a traditional craft.
Jess uses her work to communicate openly about how she feels – even if this risks creating an outcry from the public on social media, or a backlash from the Royal Academy. She is compelled to express her stance on issues including feminism, misogyny and gender identity through her stitched portraits and elaborate narrative works.
The work Jess makes is thought provoking and her compositions are sometimes contentious – her message to you is to be honest and authentic, and stand up for what is important to you.
Upcycled monsters and contoured portraits
TextileArtist.org: What initially attracted you to textiles and, in particular, stitch as a medium?
Jess De Wahls: The birth of my goddaughter was the event that initially triggered my love for textile art. I wanted to create something tactile, artistic and with meaning attached. It was this need that got me to pick up a needle and thread. Back then, I simply sewed funny monsters from upcycled clothing. These little creatures took on a life of their own, growing into a full-blown exhibition in 2011 at the Resistance Gallery, London, UK. This rapidly evolved into more complex work and led me to recycled textile sculpture – Retex sculpture – a unique medium that I developed myself.
Portraiture is important to me. I am drawn to faces because they are just incredibly interesting to me. The stories they tell, often without even meaning to, is something that has always fascinated me. I also love embroidering hands for the same reason – hands tell you a lot about a person.
My paramount themes are social injustice, period poverty, gender inequality, the rise of identity politics and self-actualisation. I also target the problems of textile waste and develop creative upcycling solutions.
Being entirely self-taught has endowed me with the freedom to establish my own voice and unique approach towards the age-old medium of embroidery, a medium which continues to be undervalued and dismissed as merely ‘craft’.
Whatever the context, bygone or contemporary, the breaking and re-shaping of preconceived ideas about textile art is integral to my work.
Nevertheless, she persisted
Tell us about the work you made for the RA Summer Exhibition…
In 2019, I created my embroidery piece Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Something Went Terribly Wrong and published a companion essay. Its impact was life-changing. I was subjected to ostracisation, an attempted cancellation by the Royal Academy of Arts, public outcry, becoming an unintended vanguard of the culture wars, and a two week-long major news story in the national press. All of this eventually culminated in an apology from the RA and they publicly backed down. The saga came full circle in 2022 when I was invited to exhibit in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition by Royal Academician David Mach, who was dismayed about how I had been treated by the RA and had been very supportive throughout.
The theme of the show was Climate, and for this, I created Nevertheless, She Persisted. The work imagines the sixth mass extinction, where most humans don’t make it, but the earth, bees, plants and fungi heal themselves and tidy up the mess we created.
At the time I made it, it was the largest embroidered piece I had ever created – it’s enormous! There were many moments in which I questioned my decision to use french knots made up of multicolour-combined threads to depict sand. Ultimately it was the right decision.
Much like with my other work, I had an initial idea, which I left to percolate for a while before I began drawing. As it’s a huge composition, I had my drawing printed onto a large piece of fabric and then got stitching. I only had four months to complete it, including getting it framed. It was a 12-hours-a-day kind of job, which I’ll admit isn’t how I enjoy working. But the opportunity was too good to pass, so I did it. The technique is the same I use in all my multi-coloured works – a combination of large seed stitches, colour blending and many french knots.
Organic inspirations
How do you go about developing a narrative for your work?
I always work on several pieces at the same time and, while doing this, I ponder about many thoughts and concepts. Doing something with my hands, in solitude, has inspired many of my ideas, which I write down as soon as they appear. Sometimes I won’t revisit these for a month or even years.
I don’t set out to intentionally develop narratives, it’s more organic than that. It all happens quite naturally.
I also listen to podcasts and audiobooks while I stitch. These provide much food for thought. Last but not least, my slight obsession with reading has inspired many a narrative. In the end, the stories I tell all develop mostly of their own accord.
Tell us about the themes and styles that feature in your work…
Feminism, the kind of second wave ‘makes things better for women’, ‘centre women’s issues’ and ‘advance female liberation’ type of feminism, is what I subscribe to. I like to address those themes while weaving lush florals and botanicals throughout the storyline. Mother Nature commonly has an intrinsic feminine quality, so to me it feels quite fitting to connect the two themes visually.
I make large, detailed and heavily stitched embroideries, as well as smaller sketchy thread drawings. The two styles are usually reserved for different things – though I might merge them a little in the future.
The thread sketches emerged out of the covid lock-down and grew from an idea into a neat little side hustle. The large embroideries are usually how I work through my ideas in thread, and these seem to be growing ever larger with time.
An initial drawing for a large piece can live in my files for quite some time until I am ready to stitch it. I pretty much always work on one or two commissioned pieces at the same time as working on my own creations. While I map out the piece as a drawing, the actual stitching – including the colour choices – happens more on the go.
Communicating with the world
Which direction do you think you’ll take in the future?
I have so many ideas and plans, and mostly not enough time in this life – I also have a toddler dancing around me most days now. I am working on a solo show I am hoping to open in a couple of years. It will be an epic collection of large scale embroideries that will no doubt rattle some feathers in certain circles and open eyes in others.
Art, in the end, is my way of communicating with the world. If some can’t handle that, that’s okay with me.
I don’t set out to be a contrarian, but with so many people nowadays too afraid to say what they think, I stick out like a sore thumb. I refuse to toe the party line with my explorations in thread.
My pieces have grown significantly in size, so I anticipate more of that in the future. I’ve also picked up crochet over the past couple of years, so I’m sure this will make an appearance in my work.
You first became known for your Retex sculptures – do you still make this kind of work?
I no longer spend time doing Retex sculptures, but then everything has its season. Who knows, I might revisit sculpture at some point.
I used old garments as a source of fabric for the Retex works. Cushion filler helped to create depth, raising the silhouette off the canvas. This allowed me to do some relief shaping and sculpting during the portrait process.
The waste culture of our consumerist societies is something I have difficulty with, so it came naturally for me to utilise recycled clothing rather than newly bought fabrics. I made a self-imposed rule of making do with what I had in the studio. As a result, the Retex works are unique and impossible to recreate.
Somehow these pieces got more and more intricate. One day, much of the background was embroidered, rather than sewn-together fabric. So, for all intents and purposes, I fell into the world of embroidery entirely by chance. Now it’s what I love to do more than anything else.
I think my portrait of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi is one of my favourite Retex sculptures. I love how wonderfully colourful it is and how much embroidery is part of it. I also feel a kinship towards her after her public hounding for her views and how gracefully she dealt with it all. It’s hard, as I well know.
One of your stated goals is to work on the elevation of the perception of embroidery, and its consideration as fine art. In what ways are you tackling this?
As the years go by and my work is being commissioned and collected by more and more patrons, I feel that in part I am doing my bid just by doing what I do. Sticking to my convictions and speaking up for what I believe in has garnered a lot of attention, not just on myself as a person, but towards embroidery as an art form. I am quite proud of that.
I no longer seek to fit in with the commercial art scene and have carved out my own niche instead. Introducing embroidery as an art form to as many people as possible is what I set out to do, and that’s exactly what I am doing.
Do you have one or two practical tips for other people making textile art?
My practical tip is not to compare yourself to others, ever! There will always be somebody ‘better’, but this knowledge is irrelevant and actually useless to your own practice.
Really dig deep and figure out what is your ‘Why?’. This is important, because otherwise you will just be floating around without much of a plan – that gets you nowhere.
Once you figure your motivations, then you can make a practical plan on how to get there, be it improving your technique, working on your marketing skills, or whatever else it might need. For the rest, the internet is a vast well of information – you can find all you need there and in books.
Don’t get hung-up on sticking with old-fashioned techniques once you’ve become proficient in them. Learn them and then take them where they serve you and your goals.
For example, I couldn’t care less about traditional transfer methods in embroidery. I draw all my pieces on the Procreate app on an iPad, then I get them printed, or I print directly at home if the piece is smaller. I have no time or patience for the traditional transfer process. For me, what matters in the end is the actual embroidery, not the drawing.
Most important, and often forgotten, remember to have fun.
Key takeaways
Jess De Wahls stitches without fear. Why not consider making powerful artworks that declare your message to the world?
- Get to grips with the techniques, then allow them to serve you. Adapt processes to suit you, like when Jess prints her drawings onto fabric to give her a quick start to her projects.
- Use your art to communicate how you feel. Don’t be afraid to tackle volatile subjects. It can be a hard route to take but, ultimately, it gives you an authentic voice.
- When you know why you are making art, you’ll have more purpose and direction, and you’ll feel more fulfilled – so go find out your ‘Why?’
Jess De Wahls was born in Berlin and has been based in London since 2004. Her solo exhibitions include Big Swinging Ovaries Vol. 2 at Platform Gallery, NSW, Australia (2018), and her work has featured in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, including A Nasty Piece of Work, The San Francisco Gallery, SF, USA (2023) and the annual Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK (2022).
Artist website: jessdewahls.com
Instagram: @jessdewahls
Check out Representing people: Portraits in textile art to discover more portrait artists using the medium of embroidery. Or enjoy the work of Bryony Jennings, another textile artist who creates 3D sculptural textiles.
Have you ever made art to communicate an opinion or feeling? Tell us more in the comments below.
The eyes on these portraits are incredible!
Beautiful work!!
Amazing work such a talent.
Love the technique! An excellent application of it. However, the recent inundation to the craft market of portraiture — especially portrait of famous individuals — is saturated and has become redundant. I would love to see what this artist could do with this technique in a more fine art manner!
Amazing work
Accurate work pretty and colorful! (:
Stunning work, I love the whole concept!!