The Sheep Manifesto: Wool, Women, and the Invisible Thread

Abstract

This text proposes a reflection on the materiality of wool as a silent witness to women’s history, connecting textile production to the rural context and the invisibility of female labor. Developed from art based research methodology, the text interweaves theory and artistic practice, incorporating the author’s own experiences and artworks as part of the investigative process. It highlights the textile manufacturing process that is often erased by the market, which values only the final product. The text engages with Donna Haraway’s ideas, reflecting on the interdependence between the human and the non-human, and how power dynamics and violence are embedded in textile production, particularly in women’s labor. It also discusses the work of the Arraiolos rug weavers, the devaluation of feminine practices, and the social construction of “femininity” through embroidery, drawing on the theories of Rozsika Parker and Lucy R. Lippard, questions the marginalization of artistic practices historically associated with women, and through the use of wool and embroidery, the author creates an ambiguity between presence and absence, reflecting on intercultural and interspecies violence. Finally, it connects with literature, using an epigraph by Clarice Lispector and a poem by Sylvia Plath to highlight the search for self-knowledge and the dismantling of boundaries between the human and the non-human.