2. BIOGRAPHY
• She is a textile artist
• For 15 years, up to 2007, she created traditional samples
for doll houses and sold them in the USA, Japan, Europe
and Great Britain – Doll houses are traditionally made for
girls (early stages of being a housewife)
• 2007 she graduated from the University of Hertfordshire
with a degree in Applied Arts
3. THOUGHTS OF HER
WORK FROM OTHER
PEOPLE
‘Text is a crucial component of the work of Caren Garfen,
whose wryly humorous and sharply observed textiles are the
result of extensive research. The entertaining accessibility of
her work masks a serious underlying social commentary.’
Sara Impey in Text in Textile Art, 2013.
4. FOCUS ON WOMEN ROLES
Garfen focuses on women issues and presents them wittily in her
prints. She concentrates on the role of women in the 21st century,
and specific themes of women & housework and women & dieting.
She also looks at gender stereotyping
She researches deeply into her chosen subject before developing
her response as an artwork.
She would usually work in print and embroidery.
Turning a Blind Eye
2008
Convey gender stereotyping in
television and magazine advertising
“but are they beauty or cleaning
products?”
Objects are stitched in pink to relate to
the feminine
5. THE WOMANUAL
– ALL DONE AND
DUSTED 2007
Influenced by Anthea Turner
television programme ‘The
Perfect Housewife’, Garfen
created a series of clothes
decorated in line studies of
objects in the house and
cleaning products. The white
gloves refer to the dust test
that is shown in the TV
show.
The line studies are
overlapped creating
confusion, could reflect
upon how a woman can be
busy with chores and
„doing-everything-at-once‟
6. STAND UP AND BE
COUNTED 2008
The chair has been used as a
domestic piece, but is used to state
that a woman should ‘stand up and
be counted’ instead of accepting the
stereotypical way that is shown in
TV and magazines.
For research, Garfen used a survey
by The Advertising Authority about
the treatment of women in adverts,
which lead to creating hand stitched
labels.
The colour scheme she used was
green, purple and white, which is the
colours used by the Suffragettes.
