Expanding the way we define art or How our definitions within the arts are inherently racist or How I compare defining art to categorizing fruits

Did you know that there are about 7500 different types of apples around the world? Here in the US we enjoy Fuji, Granny Smith, honeycrisp (my favorite), and many more, but once we leave the US the definitions of what constitutes an apple shifts a bit. My absolute favorite apple is the manzana de agua in Costa Rica and central America. It is also called a Malay Apple in Australia and Asia. It’s a tropical fruit, so it’s likely called something different depending on where you’re from. But it’s bright red, almost magenta, with white flesh, pear shaped, beyond juicy, and delectably sweet. But it looks nothing like a honeycrisp apple. But around the world, it’s still considered an apple.

Manzana de agua

Honeycrisp apple

Did you know there about 3000 different kinds of pears in the world? Bartlett pears, red pears, and Asian pears are commonly found in the grocery stores. But if you live in the southwest you know we have prickly pears. Prickly pears grow on cactus, and are bright red, almost magenta, with magenta flesh, and tons of seeds. They get their name from the fact that they, like the cactus they grow on, have little pokey spines on them. Much like the manzana de agua, they don’t much resemble the pears most Americans are used to eating.

Prickly pear

Bartlett pear

What’s the point of all this? Well when we consider the fact that when someone says the words “apple” or “pear” they could have any image (of thousands) pop into their head, then it explains why when we discuss the arts there are multiple definitions for the same thing. The thing I’m thinking of today is tapestry art.

The reasons why fruits are so different around the world, even when they share the same name, is because climate and culture dictate the how those things are defined. Manzana de aguas and prickly pear are the way they are because the climate in which they grow dictates. A honeycrisp apple, or any other north American apple doesn’t have as much water because there’s not as much water in their climate. Prickly pears contain more seeds than a Bartlett pear, likely because a cactus produces a lot less fruit than a pear tree. So filling those few fruits with seeds ensures a greater probability that they’ll reproduce. Just because I grew up with Fuji apples and red pears does not make the manzana de agua any less an apple or the prickly pear any less a pear.

In the fiber art world the definition of “tapestry” is equally expanding. For some this is disappointing. For others this implies representation.

So let’s back up and look at how the word tapestry is defined.

Merriam Webster defines tapestry as:

1a: a heavy handwoven reversible textile used for hangings, curtains, and upholstery and characterized by complicated pictorial designs

b: a nonreversible imitation of tapestry used chiefly for upholstery

c: embroidery on canvas resembling woven tapestry

Dictionary.com as:

a fabric consisting of a warp upon which colored threads are woven by hand to produce a design, often pictorial, used for wall hangings, furniture coverings, etc.

a machine-woven reproduction of this.

From wikipedia:

All of these definitions focus on European definitions, likely because I’m googling in English from the US. If you google “malay apple” and then google “manzana de agua” the information is different. When asked in English the information focuses on Australian and Asia. When asked in Spanish, Central America and the Caribbean are highlighted. So who’s to say that the way we define tapestry in the US and Europe isn’t different than how Africans, Asians, AfroCaribbeans, etc, etc. define it? Even within the English search you see multiple and varying definitions of tapestry.

Most of us in the US and Europe learn about art from an extremely Eurocentric point of view which then inhibits us from accepting and/ or acknowledging varying definitions around the world. It is also a function of racism and colonization to erase other cultures and practices from the conversation. Racism teaches us that only one viewpoint matters, and it’s likely not yours.

Tapestry art often has a religious history. That combined with cultural practices will inherently morph the ways that tapestry is viewed around the world. And that’s ok. Because that means we’re making the most of our access to the world (via technology and travel) and we’re allowing for more cultures to be represented.

Artist: Myrlande Constant

Title: Baron la Kwa (2008-2018)

From Myrlande’s website:
“Within the vodou community the flag is a sacred ritual object that identifies the hounfour and honors the spirits with whom it is associated. The sparkle of the sequin or mirror used to capture the attention of the iwa started in the temples. Drapo voudou (sequined sacred flags) are unfurled at the beginning of a ceremony. They are power points that are used for both identification and transformation. When the flag is unfurled it signals the congregants to come to order -the sacred is about to come home to roost. The spirits will soon walk next to (or in) the market woman.”

Our definitions come directly from our culture and our initial exposure to a particular practice. For some tapestry is solely a hand woven art form. For others it may include beads etc. For others it may be dyed woven fabric. Or embroidery. We can specify woven or beaded or whatever. But we cannot define another’s art form without considering the cultural significance of that work. So rather than excluding what can be considered “tapestry” we can expand and refine the definition so that everyone has an appropriate place. We can use qualifiers such as “woven tapestry” or “beaded tapestry” or embroidered tapestry” and so on.

But in a world with 7500 kinds of apples and 3000 kinds of pears it is extremely condescending to define tapestry as simply one thing.