Archive for the ‘identity tapestry’ Category
Installing at MOT (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo)
The unsung heroes of the art world include museum installation staff. They are often accomplished artists in their own right, and with large projects like these, they are indispensable. MOT‘s team was fantastic. We had a few hiccups (one of which was that humidity in Japan caused my print to wrinkle), but they are saving the day and making my work look its best.
I cannot tell you how great it is to have such careful, dedicated, clever folks to entrust my work to.
Throughout everything the exhibition curator Kasumi and another curator, Uta (who is assisting me with translation and helping me personally) have been amazing in helping me create my vision in their space. The museum space itself is amazing. I only wish I’d had more lead time to do even more (especially with all that vertical space!!!) I can’t wait to see everything after participation!
On a more personal note, one of the many new medications for CFS/ME that I am using is helping tremendously with my energy levels and recovery rates. This meant I was able to do this install so much more easily and made this trip so much better.
Identity Tapestry at the Marjorie Barrick Museum
I am pleased to announce that The Marjorie Barrick Museum in Las Vegas has commissioned Identity Tapestry #12 as part of a community initiative in Healing Through Art in the wake of the shooting there. It will be on display in the West Gallery from February 2 – May 12, 2018. From there it becomes part of the permanent collection.
I will also be speaking in an artist panel on “Art with Social Purpose” hosted by Nevada Humanities on May 4th, 7PM at The Writers Block in downtown Las Vegas.
I have been happy to prove to myself, with this third installation in a museum since I became so ill with CFS/ME that I am now in a specialized wheelchair outside the house, that I can still work productively as an artist. This has been thanks to the support of friends, family and assistants.
Almost ten years ago now my process and my work went through a serious change with pregnancy and the birth of my daughter. There were “limitations” that made me use different materials and ways of working, and they prompted the shift to Particaptory Installation. That work has lifted my art and my career as an artist.
This is another shift, and it is already teaching me a lot that I can put into my work and practice. I fully expect it will continue to lift my work.
Identity Tapestry to show in Switzerland
From the first iterations of Identity Tapestry I’ve been wanting to create it both in a museum space and in another language. I’m pleased to announce that this May I’ll be doing both! Identity Tapestry will be up as part of the upcoming show “Identity” for four months starting this May at the Vögele Cultural Center in Pfäffikon (just outside Zurich).
I will be flying out for the install and I’m incredibly excited. Any iteration demands a look at which statements to include or leave or if new ones ought to be added, especially in a new area or situation. In this case the language use should be especially interesting because there are essentially two languages at work there: High German and Swiss German. One is the official language which is used for nearly all text, the other is the language of intimate conversations and the inside of one’s own head. Apparently it is only recently that the Swiss-German language has appeared in text, and then mostly in text messages, and only to very intimate friends. How I approach these languages and navigate translations will add new levels of complexity to the piece. Thankfully the curatorial staff is wonderful and I have a local Zurich-raised person who is willing to consult with me on language as well.
Write Me for Art, installation at the Old Mint
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- Write Me for Art/Do you read me? (Disintermediation)
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- Write Me for Art/ Do you read me? (digital mediation)
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- Write Me for Art/ Do you read me? (digital mediation)
The envelope piece is…
Write Me for Art/Do you read me? (Disintermediation)
Mixed Media Participatory Installation: hand embroidery on cloth.
To create this piece I gave people (mostly strangers) around the country self-addressed stamped envelopes with personal questions inside and a description of the project, usually after a good conversation.
They were invited to write a short response in their own handwriting and send it back to me to become part of the project (also available to those following the artist online). The artist then hand embroidered every reply received by Jan 1, 2014, matching the color and handwriting as faithfully as possible.
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The tablet piece on the table is…
Write Me for Art/ Do you read me? (digital mediation)
Mixed Media Participatory Installation: machine embroidery, print on fabric, acrylic, weights.
This piece includes text from the companion piece Write Me for Art/Do you read me? (Disintermediation), but also text taken by the artist from online social media.
*For those of you who are unable to handle these, if you did you would notice that the ones that are machine-embroidered were heavy (about the weight of a phone or tablet, a little heavier). Those objects corresponded to the text from the first piece (Disintermediation). The others were printed rather than embroidered, were light and the text was taken from online social media.
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The piece in the background is Iteration #9 of Identity Tapestry.
Gala Night
The Gala fundraiser opening for SFAI’s graduate thesis show.
This photo is right when things were closing down. I liked the stillness and being able to clearly see all three pieces without the crowd. It was a really great night. I love seeing people interact with the work!
My work for this show included Identity Tapestry (iteration#9), Write Me for Art/Do you read me? (Disintermediation), and Write Me for Art/ Do you read me? (digital mediation)
I poked my head out a little, but I haven’t seen the whole show yet. I’m looking forward to a quiet viewing tomorrow.
Officially installed!
Done! There is more than this in the full installation (such as 40 more hand-embroidered messages), but this should give you an idea. Identity Tapestry is ready to go, the table is built, the tablets together and the envelopes hung. All ready for visitors and participants.
Please join us at the Mint for the show this week! Details here: http://www.sfai.edu/principal
Principal (SFAI’s MFA thesis exhibition)
For those of you who joined me for Open Studios it was wonderful, and an extra thank you to those of you who contributed to the beginning of a new participatory piece. I hope you can all join me for my thesis show!
| PUBLIC VIEWING HOURSThursday, May 15–Sunday, May 18 11 am–6 pm Visitors are invited to meander through clandestine bank vaults and decadent ballrooms to uncover site-specific and multi-dimensional displays of work. |
PUBLIC OPENING RECEPTIONFriday, May 16 7–9 pm |
![A-FP01-First Level[11]](https://marycoreymarch.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/map.jpg?w=537&h=500)
Here is your map to my work! There will be two stories full of incredible art. I will be showing Write Me for Art (for those of you who have been following that piece) and a new iteration of Identity Tapestry. If you are in the Bay Area and have wanted to try that piece out, now is your chance!
Identity Tapestry at SVC
All in all that was a pretty wonderful experience. The college was so glad to have Identity Tapestry there and so welcoming to me. I had the help of a whole team of students to help me install, as well as staff. Both were wonderful. It is a great thing to be invited somewhere, to be welcomed into a community and have your work celebrated and made part of that community.
This will be the first start-to-finish commissioned permanent installation I’ve made. “Dream Blanket” did get purchased for Sage Colleges and there is another piece in limbo as to whether it stays where it was done, but this one was made to be part of this community and it feels great.
The results were so different from previous iterations! I expected things like “I love being in nature” being very full in this group- they are in Vermont after all, but other things were surprising. I’m attributing the large number of people who have seen someone dying to the nursing program, but I don’ think that’s the whole picture and it was wrenching to see.
There was a lot more strength of love in this one- “I have loved deeply” was mobbed and there was at least one iteration where it was much more empty. There was also a sense of perseverance that came out to me, of growing beyond the past perhaps that reached across many statements. A love of learning and a quest for personal betterment was all over the piece. It came out in people being ashamed of their pasts, but proud in the moment, of many of the “I try” statements being so full, and many of the jaded ones being more empty. An openness, eagerness… but also a pretty seasoned group. I’m pleased to see the community expressed in the piece.
During both my artist’s talk and the Opening I was taken by the change that came over people. While there were many people already excited about Identity Tapestry, there were a number of people who might have been reluctantly brought over by a spouse or teacher or friend and I got to watch those faces open up and take on interest and eagerness.
In some ways I think I’m still a teacher at heart- witnessing those “aha moments” are what we live for. As an artist it’s that “aha moment” plus that moment of reaching someone- of seeing the artwork get right through their walls and connect with something more tender, of making them examine their thoughts and feelings, definitions and assumptions, to feel something intense and unexpected. That’s what it’s all about.
I had many excellent conversations with a whole range of people; students, faculty, staff, visitors and board members. I already have new feedback and ideas for the projects I’m working on, and one conversation resurrected hopes of doing something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now- an interactive home installation that takes place over years.
Other possibilities are opening up. More and more I think that soon I’ll be able to create in some large and spectacular spaces. There are so many projects sketched in my mind waiting for the right situation and location to flesh them out and give them life.
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* If you haven’t seen the piece, this video from previous iterations gives a better sense of the interaction, motion and growth.
winding
Progress on Identity Tapestry #8 (a participatory art installation).
It’s not just dyeing hundreds of individual colors (right pile). It’s carefully tying every one to a stone and inconspicuously securing it with fabric glue (what is laid out on one chair and draped over the other). It is taking all those attached stones and spending hours (hopefully with friends) winding them around each stone.
The next part involves threading them through the basket-form and securing them.
Yes, this is a labor-intensive piece, but it’s worth it.
I fly off on the 13th to install Iteration #8 of Identity Tapestry at Southern Vermont College. The first permanent installation of the series.
Colors
More dyeing today for Identity Tapestry.
I love working with dyes- in some ways it feels like oil painting- layers of color changing each other, relating each color to the others. Over-dyeing (dyeing one color on top of another) gives you so much depth and variation in each color. Love it.
Now I have to balance everything out, fill in the spectrum. For this one I’m going a little heavy on the greens and blues (I always do a bit because we see more shades of green than any other color and because blues are the most common favorite color. In this case I feel like it will fit the setting of Vermont. I also want to be sure not to neglect browns for this one in particular.
After this I spend 
a lot of time attaching the yarn to the rocks and then (with some help) winding the yarn around each rock. Time consuming, but important to the piece.
From the Studio 