<\/p>\n

Like most people, I have a long list of projects begun but never quite finished. These incomplete starts are psychologically burdensome \u2013 stirring up feelings of guilt, self-doubt and a general sense of wasted time and labor.\u00a0 I am not alone in this \u2013 but the lengthily named Society for the Prevention of Unfinished Needlework <\/em>is here to help.\u00a0 Abbreviated SPUN, the Society was founded by artist, Mary Smull in 2009.\u00a0 After inheriting an unfinished needlepoint from her grandmother, Smull began the process of acquiring and rescuing other embroideries in need.\u00a0 Culled from ebay and other secondary markets, Mary Smull and SPUN set forward on their mission of rescuing needlepoint from \u201cthe purgatory of a perennially incomplete state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In April of this year, SPUN set up a kiosk at Philadelphia\u2019s Institute of Contemporary Art, as a part of \u2018Interlace: Weaving Communities,\u2019 an event curated by Kelly Cobb. There, visitors could learn more about the society, become members, and have hands-on experience in the preservation process. The technique is straight-forward but time-consuming, simply complete the missing stitches with the yarn provided.\u00a0 The process is more telling than you would imagine, as you find yourself getting to know a little more about the original maker through their missteps and omissions.\u00a0 There is also a shared lack of commitment to the relic; most volunteers wandered away after twenty minutes, hours away from completion.\u00a0 They left no doubt that the bulk of the preservation work would be done by SPUN founder, Mary Smull.<\/p>\n

By filling in the \u2018unfinished\u2019 areas with only white, Smull retains the progress of the original maker.\u00a0 The achromatic embroidery gives physical stability to the fragmented beginnings; each stitch works towards completing the textile.\u00a0 The work is akin to masonry patchwork, preserving the underlying structural integrity and arresting future decay.\u00a0 The finished work documents a state of incompletion, fixed in time.\u00a0 Mary Smull regards the process as \u2018reclaiming\u2019 the original labor.<\/p>\n

The idea of labor in terms of time and economy is ever-present in the discussion of the role of a contemporary artist.\u00a0 In Smull\u2019s project, one \u2018worker\u2019 takes over for another with no inherent hierarchy.\u00a0 The concept of artist as \u2018maker\u2019 is broadened to include non-studio practitioners — bringing up important questions about individual and collective identities.\u00a0 Forming a cross-generational collaboration, SPUN connects unknown artists through considerable distance and time.<\/p>\n

The completed artworks are often eerie.\u00a0 Through the white stitches, faint color from the underlying pattern shows through, a hint of the image that might have been. We are left to question what happened to the original maker \u2013 did they simply give up, change projects, or did something else intervene?\u00a0 Mary Smull\u2019s project has an underlying human gravity that is impossible to avoid; she reminds us that \u201cthe work of our lives will never be done, but it will end.\u201d<\/p>\n

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