Heathcliff by any other name

The New Yorker has an article on artist Elaine Reichek, who is thus introduced:

Reichek is a grandmother who does embroidery, but, whatever associations that image has for you, forget them. A conceptual artist with a degree from Yale and a punkish shock of platinum hair, she is a leading figure in the field of mixed-media art. (Judith Thurman)

An exhibition of some of her works is now on at the Klagsbrun gallery (click here to see some images). But what is relevant to us is the description of one of her works:

Reichek’s samplers include embroidered reproductions of a Web page, Seurat’s portrait of his mother sewing, an Attic frieze, quotations in needlework from Freud and Colette, Charlotte Brontë’s favorite collar patterns with a paragraph from “Shirley,” and an extract from Darwin’s journals. (Judith Thurman)

It does sound interesting.
EDIT: More information can be found in this article in Art in America:

In the five-part work Sampler (The Brontes), 1997, Reichek quotes from Charlotte Bronte's Shirley (1848): "She was sitting in the alcove--her task of work on her knee, her fingers assiduously plying the needle, her eyes following and regulating their movements, her brain worked restlessly. She did sew, she plied her needle, continuously, ceaselessly, but her brain worked faster than her fingers." (Bill Arning, 1999)

The Herald mulls over the eternal question of 'a rose by any other name'.

Names are important in fiction, too. If Heathcliff had been called Hugebottom and if Wuthering Heights had been Bide-a-wee, the effect wouldn't have been the same. (Ron Ferguson)

If Heathcliff had been named Hugebottom, then Cathy's words would have been even more unforgettable, although for all the wrong reasons: 'Nelly, I am Hugebottom'.

The PBS Jane Eyre site announces a rerun of the series. So if anyone has not watched it yet, this offers a good chance to do so. Write it down:

Airing Sundays, December 30, 2007 + January 6, 2008 on PBS
(Check local listings; dates and times may vary)

The site has a much information on the series as well as some background information as well.

Snide Remarks in Sotto Voce looks at another film version of Jane Eyre: Zeffirelli's, which wasn't much to her taste, to put it mildly.

And a blog in Spanish, La cosa stessa, brings PJ Harvey and the Brontës together again, stating that White Chalk could have been recorded by Mrs Rochester, the madwoman in the attic. Oh well, though not what we thought, if the Brontës and White Chalk have to have something in common, this would be as accurate as it gets.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Shirley, Wuthering Heights