FEBRUARY 2016
Welcome to my blog featuring textile and fiber art
Front cover of Textile Messages, Dispatches From the World of E-Textiles and Education (2013, vol. 62 in the series The New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies, from Peter Lang).
Book of the Month
My recommendation for book of the month is a bit unusual, a selection of essays titled Textile Messages, Dispatches From the World of E-Textiles and Education (2013). Though electronic textiles can be fragile and somewhat difficult to construct, they look like tremendous fun. The text consists of an introduction and fifteen essays divided into three sections: E-Textile Construction Kits; Learning and Designing with E-Textiles; and, E-Textile Cultures and Communities. While more illustrations would have been helpful, the book does include a bibliography and index.
Earth Stories installation view, textile and fiber works by members of Studio Art Quilt Associates. The quilts pictured here (L to R) are by Alicia Merrett, Annie Helmericks-Louder, and Marilyn M. Prucka.
Earth Stories
In January I was lucky enough to view the SAQA Earth Stories exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles (San Jose, California). Carolyn L. Mazloomi, who juried the show, praises the “visual strength, degree of technical skill, and intellectually interesting storylines” in the 24 quilts on view. This ambitious exhibition of textile art addresses environmental issues, including the need to increase sustainability.
http://sjquiltmuseum.org/exhibitions.html
Carol Ann Waugh, 2014 (title of the quilt), 50 x 70 in., in her solo exhibition of five pieces from the artist’s series Conversations: Significant Years installed at aBuzz Gallery in Denver. This quilt was the first one completed of ten pieces in this series, which goes back to 1948, the year of her birth.
Solo Exhibition by Carol Ann Waugh
During the past year, Colorado artist Carol Ann Waugh has created a fascinating series, Conversations: Significant Years, consisting of words and phrases distinguished by color and tonality within a strict grid format. In the context of a gallery show, the concept of quilts titled by years (1963, 1968, 2014, etc.) prompted numerous conversations and reminiscences by viewers, completing the artist’s purpose in an interactive manner. Waugh explains her Conversations series for my blog readers: “The challenge of this series was doing the research and then selecting specific words and phrases that resonated with my views and interests today—things that happened in the past that had a direct influence on my life or my thinking. There is a strong thread throughout of women’s issues, as well as politics, science, inventions, literature, war, economics, and pop culture.” The exhibition is on view at aBuzz Gallery (founded by Waugh) in Denver until March 19.
Carol Ann Waugh, detail of 2014.
Solo Exhibition by Erma Martin Yost
Noho M55 Gallery (New York City) presents Felted Gardens, recent work by Erma Martin Yost from February 16 – March 5. Yost creates a language of symbolic forms inspired by nature. Her Felted Gardens series focuses on the repeating patterns of planting, cultivating, harvesting–then dormancy and rejuvenation. The artist evokes private worlds containing a sense of place, solitude, and contemplation. “Because of their quiet liveliness, Erma Martin Yost’s multi-layered fabric compositions almost seem to need to be watched rather than looked at. Like a glimpse of a forest out a window, or of a garden behind a gate, they play with geometric pattern against a kind of botanical profusion, and repay continual re-inspection, as nuances reveal themselves” (excerpted from an essay by Lois Martin, no relation to the artist).
Erma Martin Yost, Seedlings, 12 x 12 x 2.5 in. (2016), in her Felted Gardens series.
Royal Hawaiian Featherwork
Until February 28, the De Young in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is presenting a remarkable exhibition, Royal Hawaiian Featherwork, of some 75 pieces. I was amazed by the vibrant graphic designs of items on view, intricately stitched from feathers of indigenous birds and plant fiber. Symbols of power and status, these ceremonial objects include capes, cloaks, hats, helmets, and leis.
http://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions
Cape, Hawaii, pre-1861 (feathers and fiber). Exhibited at the De Young (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Ethnology Collection.
Feathered helmet, 1789 or earlier (feathers and fiber). Exhibited at the De Young (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.