Joyce Overheul - Let's get political

The work of Joyce Overheul (Den Bosch, 1989) is about inequality, sexism, feminism, power relations and emancipation. No romantic l'art pour l'art for this activist artist. However, she does work in soft colours, textiles and beads. A well-considered choice: for centuries handicraft and textile processing have been dismissed as women's hobbies, an inferior craft within the rest of the 'high arts'. For Joyce Overheul the use of textiles or handicraft, is like an act of resistance against the historical unequal gender relations and contemporary misogyny.

_{Joyce Overheul, Sending Thoughts and Prayers, 2020, 24,878 glass beads, 37.5 x 27.5 cm, on loan from the artist. Photo: Peter Tijhuis}

The humor and cuddliness of her work make it easy to succumb to Joyce Overheul, until you are hit by her sharp, piercing observations, which mercilessly expose human naivety and lust for power. Her work is a call to the individual to speak up, to shake off conventions and oppression. For Joyce Overheul, Let's get political is not necessarily about showing your colours, but above all about alert, combative people who critically question and undermine the ruling power.

_{Joyce Overheul, Iranian Velvet pt. 3, 2019, velvet, ø 48 cm, on loan from the artist. Photo: Peter Tijhuis}

_{Joyce Overheul, Men on Pedestals, 2020, velvet, 118 x 82 cm, on loan from the artist. Photo: Peter Tijhuis}

From October 16, Museum de Fundatie Zwolle will be showing the work of Joyce Overheul from 2011 to the present. This new Future Factory exhibition is the first museum solo presentation of Joyce Overheul's work. In 2021 her tapestry Utitlity Box on Enghelab Street (2019) was already on display in the exhibition Whose is the world? in Museum de Fundatie Zwolle. Museum de Fundatie has acquired this work for its collection, with the support of the VriendenLoterij. A book will be published by Museum de Fundatie en Waanders uit de Kunst to accompany the exhibition, featuring an interview with Joyce Overheul.

_{Joyce Overheul, P7, 2015, satin, cotton yarn, dried lavender and sesame seed filling, on loan from the artist}

_{Joyce Overheul, Utility Box on Enghelab Street, 2019, organza, embroidery thread, glass beads, 436 x 230 cm, collection Museum de Fundatie Zwolle and Heino/Wijhe, acquired with the support of the VriendenLoterij.}

Joyce Overheul - Let's get political is part of De Fundatie’s Future Factory, a laboratory where multidisciplinary makers seek out the pulse of today’s world and explore the issues that will shape the future. Their findings are presented in displays both inside and outside the museum.  

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