Posts Tagged ‘fiber art’
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.
