Alaina Varrone is an American embroidery artist who creates realistic portraits of women engaged in witchcraft rituals or simply having fun in macabre ways. Like many contemporary women embroidery artists, Varrone has reclaimed embroidery, transforming it from a domestic craft into a medium of feminist expression. Varrone uses her pieces to tell stories of brave sisters, powerful witches who stand with nature against the oppression of men, a sisterhood to withstand patriarchal control. This is why her pieces are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Gender Equality.
While creating her pieces, Varrone is frequently inspired by the surreal works of British-Mexican painter Leonora Carrington. Carrington would frequently depict images of sorcery, metamorphosis, alchemy and symbols of the occult. Being of both Mexican and Irish heritage, cultures with strong religious foundations, Carrington saw occult teachings as a way to rebel against her family. Later in life, she was involved with the Paris Surrealist milieu, spawning a close relationship with Max Ernst, which further cemented her practice as a surrealist painter. Much like Carrington’s work, there exists a fresh rebellious spirit within Varrone’s embroideries.
It’s hard to tell if Varrone’s rebellion is motivated by religion, but it is clearly an affront to patriarchal values with a tint of eco feminism. Here and there, groups of women stand holding hands, conjuring fire and magic between them. After centuries of being persecuted, these witches are now seen as feminist symbols. Women accused of witchcraft were targeted because of rumours, superstitions, and often because the women deviated from traditional roles and societal norms. Today, such as pop-culture portrayals of witches in media like Wicked, they have become a symbol of the power of womanhood and sisterhood. They show how women can band together and support each other to free themselves from male control.
As Varrone’s pieces have frequently portrayed, witches are also known to draw their powers from nature. This is where the eco-feminist aspect of Varrone’s work comes in. Eco-feminism is a socio-political movement that combines feminism with environmentalism. Having its roots in the 1970s, eco-feminism believes that both Mother Nature and women suffer in the hands of a common enemy—the patriarchy—which is why the two movements should stand together side-by-side, working towards the liberation of both women and the planet from the exploitation of patriarchal structures.
Varrone’s highly detailed embroideries become that much more fascinating when viewers understand that most of them are only 3 inches wide. Her forms and figures carry with them a nostalgic feeling, made to resemble European folk art and drawings on illuminated manuscripts. Yet, they convey contemporary messages of women's empowerment, proof of the movement’s long and unceasing work. A history of persecuted women that is now akin to a folktale, and yet is very much so a lived-in reality.
Find out more about Alaina Varrone’s witchcraft embroideries and their other pieces by checking their Instagram on @alainavarrone.