Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke and Mirrors

This is “Smoke and Mirrors aka Keep Your Eyes on the Border”.  It is 17" wide and 34" long.

Smoke and Mirrors is an old term that was usually applied to magic shows and the magician’s ability to distract your eyes, sometimes with smoke or mirrors.  I have long felt that most of politics is a case of smoke and mirrors. I have also felt that the current president, #45 has chosen the most inflammatory and divisive way to deal with immigration.  So, in the spirit of #craftivism I created this wall hanging. 

The base is a piece of my father’s overcoat, the “eyes” are other pieces of wool with shisha mirror embroidery for the pupils.  The large rent at the top, below the question mark bead, represents whatever you think is the biggest problem in the United States (or perhaps the world) today; loss of a middle class, the opioid epidemic, gun control, global warming, or even immigration.  The smaller wounds are whatever you rate as lesser problems (the fact that we are the richest country in the world and still have children who go hungry or perhaps our third world birth survival rate).  Each of us sees the problems of our country and the world differently.

The smoke is raveled organza and obscures some of the eyes and wounds.  The raveled edges represent the unraveling of our society and there is even a secret beaded coded call for help sewn in.