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Expanded Wall Label:
The Scarlet Thread and The Golden Cord: Thirteen Women of the Hebrew Scriptures
Edgar G. Boevé
The writers of the Hebrew Scriptures give great attention to the women. They were totally involved in the lives of their men and are often the driving force of their lives together. These women were the mothers of the leaders of lsrael, God's chosen people. The scarlet thread defines the place of those women in the royal line of David. Other women were essential to saving the nation of Israel, therefore, the golden cord.
The intent of the thirteen fabric art works is to interpret the essential character of each woman who contributed to the royal line of the preservation of lsrael by texture, color and design through diverse fabrics gathered from around the world.
Sarai (Sarah)- "Princess"
God came to Abram instructing him to leave Ur (Mesopotamia). This is the beginning of Monotheism and the creation of a Jewish people.
Sarai and Abram were nomads living in tents. This is a symbol of a spiritual abode as the "tent of Heaven." Sarai and Abram traveled from distant Ur of the Chaldeans in the East, en-route to Haran and finally to the land of Canaan. Accompanying them is their vast retinue and flocks. In search of food during a famine they seek refuge in Egypt where Abram surrenders Sarai to the
Pharaoh. Here her beauty is depicted as a papyrus blossom. However, Sarai and Abram are freed from the bondage (prefiguring Israel's later Exodus) and they return to the promised Land to fulfill God's promise and original plan that now Abraham and Sarah would become a great nation and Sarah "shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her" (Genesis 17: 16). The "cosmic" burst of beads is meant to convey the nations that proceed from these central figures. The murex purple background is the true royal color for the mother of a new nation.
The Scarlet Thread continues to the next generation.