2011 – Page 7 – Deidre Adams

SDA conference – gallery day, part II

Promise of Calmer Seas, detail, ©Jason Pollen

Sentinels – Jason Pollen

The Christensen Center Art Gallery, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minn.
Through July 29

It would be difficult to overestimate the contribution and influence Jason Pollen has had in the world of textile art over the last few decades. As a long-time president of the Surface Design Association and recently retired chair of the fiber department at Kansas City Art Institute, his artwork and his teaching have inspired countless numbers of students and working artists alike. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to take a workshop with him in the Denver area several years ago, and some of the things I learned are integral to the work I’m making now.

The Winter 2011 issue of Surface Design Journal features an article on his work. “A Safe Place to Play,” by Geraldine Craig, provides a brief history of Jason and his work along with several beautiful photographs. I had been familiar with his textile work up until this point, but his latest work includes a series of tall wood sculptures with complex surface textures and varied colors. Reminiscent of human figures, these articulated structures simultaneously stand on the floor and lean against the wall in a relaxed yet watchful manner. According to the article, “Pollen views them as sentinels, protectors who distinguish between the protected and unknown potential prey.” These sculptures, along with 2 textile pieces, comprise the Sentinels exhibition.

The wall label for the exhibition says:

The inspiration for this exhibition stems from a prolonged experience of physical and emotional wounds, scars and mercifully, an ongoing significant recovery. Witnessing the stages of illness and vulnerability compelled me to create works that reflect on the universality of our fragility and strengths. Cloth, wood, stitching, color and mark-making are the tools I require in my passionate attempt to bring inanimate objects to life. My wish is that they might inspire those who connect with them.

–Jason Pollen

I would say he has succeeded admirably in his wish.

New Tools and Ancient Techniques – Teresa Paschke

Gage Family Art Gallery, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minn.
Through July 29

Iowa State University associate professor Teresa Paschke is “intrigued by the expressive possibilities that exist by merging sophisticated technology such as digital printing with the most modest ones–needle and thread.” The work in this exhibition is based on her experiences in Prague in 2008. It combines her photographs of street scenes, architecture, and graffiti, digitally manipulated and printed on fabric, with hand printing and hand stitching. She wants the viewer to consider how ornament and pattern express cultural and social ideals, and to consider how historical and contemporary forms of visual expression might be related – in this case, historical needlework and contemporary graffiti. The addition of the tactile stitching to the beautifully printed photographs was an unexpected and delightful surprise, bringing me in for closer inspection and consideration.

Whisper: Jiyoung Chung’s Joomchi

Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, Minneapolis, Minn.
Through June 24

Jiyoung Chung is a painter, mixed media artist, and freelance writer. This is an exhibition of her work using an “innovative method for utilizing a traditional Korean method of papermaking called Joomchi.” She also taught a pre-conference workshop at SDA, but it was held at the same time as the one I did take. If I ever get another opportunity to take a class from her, I’ll certainly do it, because I was very impressed with the work in this exhibition. The layering of the sheets, creating intricate interactions within the holes, made me think about the concept of “negative space” in a new way that’s giving some ideas for my own work. Several of the pieces also included stitching and threadwork. I especially loved how the work was hung, with the lighting adding an important contribution of shadows that brought it to life.

The Jiyoung Chung work is being shown at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts – a must-see if you are interested in paper, printmaking, or any form of book arts. Be sure to go downstairs and see their fantastic studios for letterpress and papermaking.

June 15th, 2011|Exhibitions|2 Comments

SDA conference – gallery day, part I

Henny Penny (detail), cast handmade paper, wax, and dye. Hand sewn. ©2011 Ann Hall Richards.

Thursday at the Surface Design Association conference was gallery day. We spent the afternoon being shuttled from one great exhibition to another. There were so many, I didn’t get to see all of them, but here are some highlights of the ones I did see.

Esperanza – Carolyn Kallenborn

Gordon Parks Gallery, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minn.
Through July 28, 2011

The works in Esperanza (“hope” in Spanish) come from a melding of prior exhibitions that share a common thread, all based on concepts Kallenborn became familiar with throughout her extensive time spent in Oaxaca, Mexico. Deseos comes from a desire to respond to feelings of hopelessness and fear with a message of healing. Cascada is an interactive installation piece in which viewers are invited to write on a silk rose petal a single word describing an admired characteristic of a person who has passed on, and exchange it for a painted stone from the installation. Ofrendas includes works inspired by the public ofrenda (“offering”), a kind of altar, and the milagro (“miracle”), a small charm left as a prayer for healing. The long banner-like pieces are made from handwoven cloth from the markets in Oaxaca, to which Kallenborn meticulously hand stitches beads, shells, silk flower petals, and other found objects. She says each object “is chosen and placed to reflect the specific emotion or desire expressed within the piece. The time and the attention in deliberately attaching each individual object is itself a meditative process. The finished pieces become the physical visual reminders of my intention.”

Flotsam and Jetsam – Erica Spitzer Rasmussen
Repetition Meditation Revelation – Ann Hall Richards

Concordia Gallery, Concordia University, St. Paul, Minn.
Through July 1, 2011

These two shows, exhibited concurrently in two different rooms of the gallery, were very different in concept but worked beautifully together due to symbiosis achieved through visually similar materials and process.

Ann Hall Richards uses “techniques that transform common objects into contemporary and contemplative works that invite and even challenge the viewer to consider not only the content, but also the process and choice of materials.” The aptly-named exhibition features works in which the artist takes a common object or an unrecognizable yet oddly familiar form, and repeats it until the units together create a new form compelling further consideration and contemplation.

Erica Spitzer Rasmussen’s works also use repetition and familiar objects, but her themes are more personal, based on childhood memories, experiences of family and motherhood, and cultural references. She says, “I sometimes find body-stories or body-experiences to be simultaneously comical and horrifying. It is often these extremes in emotional reactions that drive me to produce the work, in an attempt to better comprehend each situation.”

In the Garden of Earthquakes – Vernal Bogren Swift

AAW Gallery of Wood Art, Landmark Center, St. Paul, Minn.
Through June 26, 2011

Vernal Bogren Swift says she regards making art as a form of questioning. “I think of myself as much as a scientist as an artist. I suppose I would like to replace the word ‘artist’ with another term such as ‘visual thinker.’” Her exhibition consists of 9 batik panels depicting a narrative inspired by the ongoing tectonic plate movements between sea and land. The meticulously rendered drawings are whimsical yet beautiful, fascinating in detail. My only complaint about the installation was that most of the work was hung too high to get a good look at all of it. I would have liked to be able to get a better sense of the story within.

I did have a chance to talk with the artist briefly. She told me that with this work, she has only about a 40% success rate. I asked her what she does with the “failures” (the term would have to be relative, in my opinion), and she says she destroys them. As a quilter who challenges myself to use up everything and try to waste nothing, I was both very surprised and frankly somewhat horrified to hear this. I thought of all the lovely quilts that could be made from what I envision to be piles of lovely fabric. But I certainly respect her integrity in not wishing her work to be used in such a way.

June 11th, 2011|Exhibitions|2 Comments

SDA – India Flint, Part 2

Rose petals, onion skins, various leaves and flowers used for dyeing in class

Near the end of Day 2 of the Traveler’s Notebook workshop, we prepared and simmered more bundles. The difference this time was that the pot was richer in mordanting compounds – both through the accumulation of plant materials from prior dyeing as well as through the addition of odd hunks of scrap iron and other metal. We also left the bundles wrapped overnight so that the dyes could have more time to set. The first thing next morning, we opened our bundles with as much anticipation and excitement as children on Christmas morning. I was a lot happier with my results this time.

While waiting for bundles to come out of the dyepot, we continued to make more sheets collaged with fabrics, papers, and special mementos, held together with stitch. We also did a writing exercise to create a page covered with a texture made of our own handwritten marks. (More on this later.)

With all these raw materials now in progress for our finished books, the next thing to do would be to create a binding structure for the finished books. This was to be based on the Blizzard Book, a structure created by Hedi Kyle during a blizzard.

The folds of the Blizzard Book are called “mountains” (outer folds) and “valleys” (inner folds). Because we would be stitching all of our pages to folds of the Blizzard Book, we added support to the paper by hand-stitching a length of fabric to the center portion. Then we accordion-folded these large sheets of paper and prepared them for dyeing by the same processes as used before.

While waiting for the real binding structures to dry after dyeing, we practiced the Blizzard book folding technique with a dummy sheet. The process is rather paradoxical – it seems simple when you see it demonstrated, but then when you try it, you realize how complex it can be when you can’t remember what to do next. Instructions for making your own Blizzard Book can be found in the Penland Book of Handmade Books. You can also find a PDF with instructions here.

The last step of the bookmaking process was to attach the materials made during the last few days to the folds of the Blizzard Book structure. I didn’t get mine finished, but several people did, and the results were spectacular.

I had one more goal I wanted to accomplish in class. Many artists are packrats, and I’m no exception. I’ve been holding onto a large stack of Rives BFK printmaking paper in thin strips, the remnants of trimming large sheets to a specific size for intaglio prints when I was in school. When the supply list said to bring scraps of paper, I threw these in with my materials. I used the class time to dye these strips. I don’t know yet what I’ll use them for, but I do think they’re quite beautiful.

Rives BFK paper dyed with leaves, rose & iris petals, and onion skins. Peony petals acted as a resist. Drawn lines were made by painting with milk prior to dyeing.

June 9th, 2011|Art|7 Comments