Embroidering Voice

The decorative craft of embroidery is often used by some women around parts of the world as an urgent mode of non-verbal visual communication in expressing their distress, especially in patriarchal societies. Compared to other countries, cases of feminism in Singapore are not as alarming and prominent. However, with existing Singaporean women suffering from cases of workplace gender inequality, domestic violence and sexual assault, a patriarchal society might possibly exist, with it simply being overlooked and left unaddressed. My project studies on how embroidery as a craft can be adopted by Singaporean women as a mode of non-verbal visual communication in conveying their challenges faced in Singapore due to their gender, just like how it has been done internationally. Due to the lack of feminist activities being openly addressed in Singapore, context in the project is borrowed from international activist protests and individual personal experiences of women with connections drawn back to realistic Singapore situations, in voicing out the problems of women simply for their gender identity.