CAG.3152 Jennifer Trouton, Mater Natura: The Abortionist’s Garden [Embroidery], 2020-21, embroidery on linen, series of 6, various dimensions. Purchased, 2021. © the artist.

FOLLOWING THREADS is now in its final week!

So for this WORK OF THE WEEK, we’re focusing on six small but powerful embroideries by Jennifer Trouton that are featured in the exhibition.

As their title suggests, Mater Natura: The Abortionist’s Garden [Embroidery] relates to feminist questions of bodily autonomy and the State.

In making these works during Lockdown, Trouton found herself ‘in a very traditional way, sitting at night in my house, embroidering these plants, but the subversive nature of it is that these are not garden plants, these are not beautiful plants, this is not me celebrating the art of botanic. It was me embroidering these plants that women used in this battle for autonomy for their bodies.’

Varying in colour, size, and shape – circular and oval – these embroideries are a companion piece to a series of 32 watercolours of herbs and flowers, also in the Collection, that have traditionally been known to induce abortion during pregnancy. In Trouton’s embroideries and watercolours, these plants occur alongside the female pelvis and uterus, as well as maps of the island of Ireland.

Jennifer Trouton (b.1971) is based at QSS Studios in Belfast and, through her work, subtly weaves ideas of gender, class, and identity within Irish history. She has exhibited at Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris), Butler Gallery (Kilkenny), Solstice Arts Centre (Navan), and Crawford Art Gallery.

Mater Natura: The Abortionist’s Garden [Embroidery] (2020-21) by Jennifer Trouton is featured in FOLLOWING THREADS until Sunday 28 January.

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