Dianna Frid
In 2010 Dianna Frid began an archive of obituaries from the New York Times that she loosely classifies with a color code to then produce “Words from Obituaries,” an ongoing series of embroidered words on a graphite field. These words are chosen from particular obituaries and stitched in shades corresponding to the profession or vocation of the person deceased. The work she made for Uninvited is from the obituary of Joan Feynman, who was determined to be an astronomer in spite of countless obstacles women in science faced. Although Feynman was at first discouraged and uninvited she was determined to conduct pioneering research that shed light on the forces that produce the auroras borealis and australis.
Frid describes how she selects words for the series: “As I sort through hundreds of obituaries I detect, in a few of them, samplings of phrases that are just right. They seize a moment in language that operates both within and outside the source. I do not choose these words for their narrative or commemorative values, but rather for an urgency that is external, yet related, to them.
Title: "NYT, September 14, 2020, Joan Feynman" (From the Words From Obituaries series)
Date: 2020
Dimensions: 15 x 20 inches (h x w)
Materials: Embroidery floss, graphite, canvas, paper.