Sampler (Blade Runner), Elaine Reichek (born 1943)

This needlework embroidery pairs two identical portrayals of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve standing with the tree of knowledge. Below the stitched images is a pair of texts: the left one from the book of Genesis in the Bible, and the right-hand one from Ridley Scott’s 1982 film “Blade Runner.” By combining words and images in the historical school-girl sampler format, Reichek embraces the stitching rigor and highly structured aesthetic, and moral, tradition. Respecting these strictures while at the same time humorously rejecting their limitations, Reichek initiates a new discourse on feminist approaches to artistic expression.