This year, so much of our work at Yiara has involved adapting and mending our usual
practices to continue our project of making feminist art history accessible. Yiara has
always been interested in weaving together obscured narratives and providing space for
thought, growth, and beauty. We doubled down on these themes during the pandemic, but these
strange circumstances also asked for more than revelation — they asked for connection. We
made a conscious effort to reach out to the community we are infinitely grateful to have. We
collaborated with fellow artists, friends, and creators, and felt that we were part of a
mutual network of support, trust, and of course, creativity.
As we prepared volume 09, we grappled with the labour of artmaking in difficult times. Acts
of creation are ultimately acts of meaning-making, and to make something is to make sense of
it — to transform the nebulous and uncertain into something recognizable and firm. In the
last year, surely all of us have enacted this routine of care and creation, and have engaged
in our own quietly transformative acts from within isolated, solitary spaces.
Many of the works featured in this issue reflect this new relationship to artmaking. These
works wield a dual focus: inwards, towards the self, but also outwards, in search of
connection with the other. In Cathartic Thread, 1000amour uses her own body as a canvas,
transforming it into a site of personal renewal. Claire Sigal explores a similar balance
between construction and violence in Mending Memories, which examines the process of sewing
as intricately connected to Frida Kahlo’s life as a woman and artist. And in Walking
Costume, Kathryn McTaggart uses a soft-sculpture garment to build a parallel between sewing
and the “daily walks” that have become a central part of our lives during the pandemic.
Yiara is the product of so many people’s labour and love — it belongs to each member of our
editorial team, to our contributors, and to our readers. As you read over this issue, we
invite you to consider your place within this collective fabric that we are creating
together, and to weave your own thread through it.
Thank you for reading,
Sara Hashemi & Amelle Margaron
Editors-in-Chief | Vol. 09