Posts Tagged ‘fiber art’
ME/CFS Project
So it has been a while since I’ve posted. We’ve all had that year with covid. I’ve continued to make new Identity Tapestries (for shows that are now postponed) and a few light paintings, but other new art has stalled… until last night.
I had an idea for a piece which has been slowly percolating its way through my brain for a while now and suddenly gained shape. I have been struggling with how to talk about ME/CFS (a condition that has caused me to be in a wheelchair for the past 4 years) in my artwork.
What has struck me is the power of the social media posts of fellow ME/CFS sufferers as a window into our lives. I have decided to create a work using these (anonymous and always with permission) together in one piece, possibly also with photo images. The text will be embroidered onto hand dyed fabric panels in various shades of blue. The photos if I decide to use them would be rendered into blue dye on fabric using photo-reactive dye. This will make the images a little less recognizable as specific people, but hopefully the sense of exhaustion they feel and their humanity will come across. If the images don’t work the way I want, I will stick to the text.
I think the anonymous raw, un-edited social media posts of severe ME/CFS suffers would provide a very specific, candid window into our lives. So many of us only show our best selves in public (if we have the luxury of being able to leave our beds) and even our friends and family don’t see how we suffer. The raw posts- with all the typos and things intact also show our mental state as it is.
ME/CFS is a terribly debilitating condition affecting a CDC estimated 2.5 million (likely more now since covid and “long covid”). Many experts think the parts of long covid that are not direct physical scarring or results of blood clots are actual cases of ME/CFS. It can happen after any viral infection. I got it four years ago as a result of a different virus and now need a reclining wheelchair to leave the home. Those who have the most mild cases can still work and walk, they just feel exhausted or flu-like all the time. Those who suffer most among us need stomach tubes, catheters, and total sensory deprivation (dark rooms, noise canceling headphones, etc.) so as not to overload our senses. I was pretty severe, but now am moderately severe thanks to careful pacing and many medications and supplements. Where I used to only be able to sit upright for 15 min, I can now do it for up to 2 hours, which allowed me to paint and sew again.
I want to tell our stories. I want to make this pain visible to people through my art, and I think I found the right way to do it.
If you have ME/CFS and you have a social media post you would like me to include you can alert me at contact@marymarch.com Ditto a headshot of a moment that really shows you struggling. Otherwise I will be finding them myself and asking permission.
If and when I ever sell this piece any profits above materials costs will go to Solve ME.
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.
Knee Deep in Rainbows
I’ve been busy.
- Finished correct size (not yet glued down)
- Internals for the Access card reader box
Access is nearly ready for action, thanks to the programing and hardware design of my friend and collaborator Daniel Garcia and the help of my three lovely studio assistants who have been sanding away at the 60+ boxes I printed on the 3D printer.
Access will have its first run of interaction at Intel’s conference in Portland, Oregon this May, where I will also be presenting a talk on intersections and empathy.
The piece involves a series of statements about Access with “Yes” and “No” buttons with card readers to log responses. The statements cover all kinds of access based on education, physicality, finances, background, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, culture, social elements, etc. Like Identity Tapestry, specific statements are selected and phrased to focus on the _intersections_ so that one statement may cover different kinds of people’s specific access challenges.
Each visitor will have an access card (image below) to use in including their own access story into the piece. I made these softer and more tactile with an eye to giving them the approachability, uniqueness and comfort people find in my yarn to set against the more impersonal electronic devices. The color of the card will determine the color shown in the data visualizations for the piece. They go from statement to statement, scan their card, and then select “Yes” or “No” for each of the sixty statements.
In this first iteration, the data visualizations will be on large monitors on either side of the piece, but future iterations will likely use project mapping or combinations of screens and projection mapping. I have the advantage of knowing the specific group for this particular piece in advance and knowing everyone should have no trouble accessing the piece. In future more public interactions though, the goal is to make the piece accessible to participants who do not speak English, or who are blind or wheelchair bound. The fonts were already selected based on being better for those with dyslexia.
In the meantime I am working on a very special (and HUGE) version of Identity Tapestry which will include maps for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT). The show (Wandering, Mapping) will open on August 4th and run until October 20th, 2019. The piece will also feature a companion wall of responses on local, Tokyo paper I have hand-dyed alongside the yarn.
My studio helpers have been my hands through much of the dyeing process, and all of the measuring and winding and they’ve been wonderful. I am looking forward to seeing everything up and installed!
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.
Natural Dyeing for Sukkah Project
I’ve been invited to inhabit the Sukkah at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco) on October 8th for one day of the holiday of Sukkot. They invited six artists to each take a day to create an open studio or installation project inside the frame of the Sukkah. I decided to take the opportunity to do a new Participatory Installation piece within that frame entitled Refuge of Leaves.
Process
These are photos of the dyeing process for this new project. These are the first three batches, using pomegranate dye, rhubarb dye and artichoke dye. Each dye changes depending on if I scour the paper first, or if I add a mordant, or if I add iron. I did every combination on four kinds of paper to get a wider variety.
As I’m going, I allow the paper to show some marks- wrinkles, the mark of the iron, irregularities, etc. Showing their history, that they have been through something, a difficult process that may even damage them seemed like a perfect parallel to individuals seeking refuge, to people who had a story to tell.
About the Piece
Traditionally a Sukkah is a symbolic ritual space of refuge in the wilderness created for the holiday of Sukkot in the Jewish faith and tradition. “Refuge of Leaves” creates a Sukkah as a space for reflection where people from many backgrounds can reflect on and share their personal experiences of refuge from “wildernesses”, whether physical or metaphorical. As a Sukkah it symbolizes a liminal space of safety within the wilderness between worlds.
I followed traditional aspects of the Sukkah in using natural plant-based materials in the form of a variety of papers from different places and times, including papyrus as well as paper that could be put through a modern printer. These are for participants to write responses to their choice of prompts on the subject of refuge. I am hand-dyeing the papers with natural dyes to mimic the color range of plants one might build a traditional sukkah from. The dyeing processes also makes each piece of paper individual in color and texture, just like the people writing their responses.
The word “leaves” in the title functions in a number of ways. The individual leaves of paper in a larger book, the plant leaves that form a traditional Sukkah, and the nature of a this kind of refuge as a temporary shelter (not a home) that eventually requires one to leave. The structure is very literally a refuge made of leaves that each participant leaves behind.
As part of this project I will be there from 10AM until 4PM to discuss my work and facilitate the process. Please join me.
Dyeing wrap up
Just some images of my yarn as I dye it and arrange it to see how my color balance for iteration #10 of Identity Tapestry for the Identity show at Vögele Cultural Center is going.
I’m nearly there! I just need some more blues in the medium darkness range of all hues. Here you can see on the white plastic sheeting some of the yarn I am dyeing over to create all the richness and depth of color in the yarn for the piece.
I am contemplating using a different size of plaque for the statements because of the nature of German (more text needs more space). This would bring the format closer to “hello my name is” labels, which I like, but I need to be sure I can find the right sized stickers for the look I want. I could physically do the text without stickers, but the label/name tag/address reference label stickers give is important to me for this piece. I may end up ordering metric ones.
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.
Scenes of Surveillance
A few scenes from the Bearing Witness Show of the pieces, artist talks and performances.
I’ve just added Digital Breadcrumbs (M.I.S.S.T) and Online Profile to my website.
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- Justin Hoover and Rachel Znerold “Eye Witness” (performance piece)
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- Shay Arick
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- Tana Lehr
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- Kara Maria
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- Kinetech “‘Mirror #1, Time Bubble” performance
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- Kinetech “Interview” (?)
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- Teddy Milder
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- Digital Breadcrumbs (M.I.S.S.T.) -Mary March, Chris Saari and Rob Powers
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- Top of “Digital Breadcrumbs (M.I.S.S.T.)
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- Individual’s path, “Digital Breadcrumbs”
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- Igor Josifov ‘Wit-ness’ (installation and performance)
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- Latifa Medjdoub “Conversation with the Roots” (Installation and performance)
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- Latifa Medjdoub “Conversation with the Roots” (Installation and performance)
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- Mary March “Online Profile”
Artists Discussion Panel- Endangered Languages in the Information Age next Thursday
Tomorrow night is the opening reception for Living With Endangered Languages in the Information Age! We are also having a panel discussion centering around the role of technology in Languages and Art on the 15th. Please join us!
More on the show here: https://www.rootdivision.org/exhibition-rd-gallery/living-endangered-languages-information-age
Living With Endangered Languages in the Information Age show Opening next weekend!
The “Living With Endangered Languages in the Information Age” show at Root Division is opening on the 7th! I will have my new mixed media sound installation Cultural Fabric Breathes Still there waiting for you.
Much thanks to curator Hanna Regev, the participants (who chose to remain anonymous), to technical collaborator Dan Garcia.
