“Challenging Cliché 1” (Diamonds) 92 x 202 cm., cloth, needlework, fake jewels lace,
“Challenging Cliché 2” (Family Memories) 102 x 143 cm. cloth, needlework, lace
“Challenging Cliché 3’” (Quilt with Wedding Vows) 187 x 173, American patchwork quilt (made in 1940 by Myrtle Rector and Mary Payne – the artist’s grandmother and great aunt as a wedding gift for her parents), pictorial patches (made from family snapshots and words from wedding vows sown by the artist), cloth, lace, fake jewels and needlework.
Interested in the relationship between image and word, using photographs from family albums and popular sayings, Nancy Atakan analyzes cliché, trite and stereotyped expressions, sentences, phrases often used to promote an idea about gender relationships that have lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.