Surface Design Journal - Spring 2014 - Sample Issue by Surface Design Association

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Surface Design Association

P.O. Box 20430 Albuquerque, NM 87154 info@surfacedesign.org surfacedesign.org Executive Director

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President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jane Dunnewold Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeanne Raffer Beck Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Karen Hampton Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Melinda Lowy Board:

Surface Design Journal is a quarterly publication

of the Surface Design Association, a non-profit educational organization. SURFACE DESIGN ASSOCIATION Our Vision: To inspire creativity, encourage innovation,

and advocate for artistic excellence as the global leader in textile-inspired art and design. Our Mission: To promote awareness and appreciation of

textile-inspired art and design through member-supported benefits, including publications, exhibitions and conferences. Our Objectives:

• To provide opportunities for learning, collaboration and meaningful affiliations • To mentor and support emerging artists, designers, and students • To inform members about the latest developments and innovations in the field • To recognize the accomplishments of our members • To encourage critical dialogue about our field • To inspire new directions in fiber and textiles • To raise the visibility of textiles in the contemporary art world SUBSCRIPTION / MEMBERSHIP

The Surface Design Association membership: $60 a year ($35 for student with ID); $30 ($20 student) of each member’s dues shall be for a year’s subscription to Surface Design Journal. Subscriptions are available only to members. Outside USA: add $12 for Canada and $20 for all other countries. US funds only. Send Subscription/Membership correspondence to:

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Representative of Representatives . . . . . Astrid Bennett Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Susan Taber Avila Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ann Graham Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vivian Mahlab Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeanette Thompson

©2014 Surface Design Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Surface Design Journal (ISSN: 0197-4483) is published quarterly by the Surface Design Association, Inc., a non-profit educational organization. Publications Office: 2127 Vermont Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Periodicals postage paid at Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices.

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Surface Design Journal

Ties that Bind Wrapping my head around the “Nature Bound” theme of this issue, my thoughts have returned often to the phrase “Good design needs to embody ethics.” These are the wise words of Rohan Chhabra, featured artist in the Emerging Voices section. Chhabra aims to increase awareness of the plight of endangered animals with his series of transformative hunter jackets. Impeccably tailored, these sculptural garments also serve to “remind us of our complicity in the problem.” A kind of conceptual friction is at the heart of many of the stories in this issue. As civilized beings living in a fast-paced and technologically “superior” age, we tend to philosophize about our impact on the environment from the comfort of the couch. Calls to action sound the loudest when reality hits home. Without exception, we are all part of the circle of life, inevitably bound by the laws of nature. What we do with our limited time and energy—how we choose to interact with the planet and contribute to its conservation, or not—is entirely personal. But the clock is ticking. Chhabra, like many of the artists profiled in this issue, is driven by “the ability to use design to inform and reform social and ethical issues.” Modern-day gatherers Kate MccGwire, Shannon Weber, and Sandra Jane Heard all transform copious amounts of unusual found materials into wholly new objects of cautionary contemplation. Meditative acts of “feathering”, binding, winding, stitching, weaving, and burning ensnare viewers in every mysterious sculpture they create. Pursuing nature’s call to different ends, Brazilian artists Mozart Guerra and Maria Nepomuceno employ rope along with various forms of coiling. Guerra’s mesmerizing life-size heads question the concept of “trophy”, while his targeted surface design draws attention to threats against the animal kingdom. Nepomuceno’s sprawling and colorful mixedmedia installations express a joyful interconnectedness reminiscent of both biological and cosmological systems. Mark Mitchell confronts the mortal coil with his collection of bespoke burial couture. Each biodegradable ensemble, lovingly hand-

WILLIAM MORRIS Woodpecker Tapestry Detail, wool on cotton lining, tapestry, 120.9" x 61.4",1885. ©William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest.

made with silk and wool, offers an elegant answer to the age-old question “How do we say goodbye to our dead?” The legacy of renowned English textile designer William Morris, forefather of the decorative Arts & Crafts Movement, is alive and well more than a century since his passing. A selection of Morris-inspired works by contemporary artists continues his celebration of the natural world (story on p. 44). Meaningful approaches to artistic engagement with Mother Nature are also explored with the traditional technique of piecing to create dazzling abstract art quilts. Along similar lines, natural-dye artist and explorer India Flint shares stories from former students who make eco-print art steeped in admiration for the landscapes they inhabit. From environmental activists to lovers of the great outdoors, this issue is bound to offer a range of captivating articles!

Marci Rae McDade journaleditor@surfacedesign.org

COVER CREDIT: KATE MCCGWIRE Orchis Mixed media with mallard feathers in antique dome, 17.7" x 9.1" x 13.4", 2012. Photo: Tessa Angus, courtesy of All Visual Arts.

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features 06

Kate MccGwire: Unexpected Beauty

by Jessica Hemmings

Harvest: Shannon Weber by Carolyn Hazel Drake

Interpreting Nature: Piecing Abstraction by Petra Fallaux

Sandra Jane Heard: Wound & Wound by Christopher Merlo

22 28

Marking the Way Home by India Flint

Mark Mitchell: Fashioning Eternity by Cameron Anne Mason

Bound by Brazil by Paulina Ortiz by Stefano Catalani

The Design of Nature by Michelle Fifis

Surface Design Journal

Spring 2014 Volume 38 Number 3

departments 50

Exposure A gallery of recent work by SDA members

First Person Sally Hayden Gilmore

Emerging Voices

Rohan Chhabra

Legacy Dorothy Gill Barnes

Spotlight on Education East Carolina University College of Fine Arts and Communication, Greenville, North Carolina

In Review Innovations in Fiber Art VI Sebastopol, California The Contact: Quilts of the Sierra Nevada

Waco, Texas Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800 New York, New York Mountains & Ghosts: New Ikat Tapestries & Prints Lincoln, Nebraska 5th biennale international du lin de Portneuf (BILP) Portneuf region outside of Quebec City, Canada in•ter•face Exhibitions 17th International SDA Conference San Antonio, Texas

Spring2014

Surface Design Journal

Unexpected Beauty K a t e b y

M c c G w i r e

J e s s i c a

H e m m i n g s

The British anthropologist Mary Douglas felt that dirt was little more than matter out of place. Hair on our heads is beautiful, the same hair sneaking into our food revolts. Curiously, feathers often provoke a similar contradictory response. While beauty is unquestionably present, it is a type of beauty that can unsettle and even disgust. The work of English artist Kate MccGwire courts these contradictions and, as she explains, “probes the beauty inherent in duality, exploring the play of opposites—at an aesthetic, intellectual and visceral level—that characterizes the way we conceive the world.” MccGwire grew up on the Norfolk Broads, a landscape of rivers and wetlands on the east coast of England. She refers to nature’s “beauty and brutality”, explaining that an early inspiration for the twisting shapes found in her current work came from her childhood memories “watching the eel catcher with his purpose-made fork, which didn’t puncture the eels but [they] would wind themselves around it convulsing energetically, glistening, rubbery, and muscular.” A similar tension is apparent in the double meanings often found in the titles of her work. Cleave, an anthropomorphic form made of dove feathers that folds intimately inward, can be understood as splitting apart but also means to remain faithful. Similarly, the crow feathers of Gag twist around like a Mobius strip. The name can mean a game (in this case, finding the beginning and end to an unending knot), but also the unpleasant action of choking. While the initial visual impact alludes to the exotic, the feathers MccGwire uses are locally sourced from common birds that are often despised: magpies for the destruction they wreak on other birds’ nests; crows cast in sinister leading roles, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Birds; pigeons considered a bane of the urban landscape and famously referred to as “rats with wings” by the film director Woody Allen. Feathers have not always been MccGwire’s material of choice. Initially, she worked with wishbones, using no less than 23,000 to create the final work for her student exhibition at the Royal College of Art in London. The work Brood was snapped up by the influential British art collector Charles Saatchi. To collect the wishbones, MccGwire cooked discarded chicken carcasses from local butchers, harvesting the bones after boiling the meat. INSET LEFT: KATE MCCGWIRE Evacuate Mixed media with game feathers, 157.5" x 98.4" x 47.2", 2010. With Detail. Photos: Jonty Wilde. Spring2014

While assembling the work is unquestionably painstaking, the finished objects are more robust than first glance would suggest.

KATE MCCGWIRE Sluice Mixed media with pigeon feathers, dimensions variable, 2009. Photos: Francis Ware. LEFT: Detail.

The feathers she now works with are somewhat easier to gather, but the double entendre of the title (the verb brood means to ruminate, while the noun means offspring) and painstaking collection and assembly of materials remain constant aspects of her production. MccGwire is reluctant to divulge exacting details about the construction of her sculptures, but she explains that each underlying form is covered in felt and “feathered” in a painstaking process that handily conceals the joins of each base. Studio assistants help with the enormous task of trimming and sorting boxes of feathers into discrete variations of color and size. Since 2007, she has worked with over 70 racing pigeon enthusiasts who collect their birds’ feathers when they naturally molt twice yearly and send them to the artist. The feathers have the benefit of being light and easy to mail in an envelope. Perhaps more importantly they bring the work in contact with communities that may not otherwise engage with contemporary art. Relationships with the racing pigeon owners are now so established that, upon retirement, the birds are often rehomed and the responsibility of collecting feathers continues with the new owner. Accumulation plays a central role in determining the scale of each piece. MccGwire’s sculptures tend to be large—very large considering what is involved to gather her materials. Size is determined by the amount of feathers available to her at a given time. The feathers for Evacuate are a mix of Mallard duck, goose, peacock, pheasant, teal, woodcock, woodpigeon, quail, grouse, French partridge, turkey, and chicken. Here, the selected feathers twist in and out of the kitchen stove at the Neo-classical Mansion of the National Trust property Tatton Park in Cheshire, England. All the feathers, collected by the property’s gamekeeper, come from species of birds that would once have been prepared for food. Other unusual settings have also been tackled. Sluice was installed in the underground Crypt of St Pancras Church in London. The pigeon feathers used in the work are hardly remarkable when thought of alone, but when set against the distressed tile wall and a disused pipe, the feathers reveal an unexpected beauty. Surface Design Journal

KATE MCCGWIRE Cleave Mixed media with white pigeon feathers in antique cabinet, 63.8" x 24" x 18.1", 2012. With detail Photo: Tessa Angus courtesy of All Visual Arts.

Spring2014

KATE MCCGWIRE Brood Chicken bones on aluminum, 70.9" x 70.9", 2007. Photo: Neil Wood.

MccGwire describes the installation “spewing” as if “forced by some kind of subterranean pressure, from a hole in the floor, to create a swirling vortex of effluence, at once exquisite and disturbing.” Slick similarly suggests a viscous substance, spilling magpie and crow feathers from a Victorian fireplace. The setting here is far more glamorous, but the work’s title and oily color of the feathers allude to something sinister spilling into the comfort and security of the traditional interior. Alongside installations, MccGwire also creates work, such as the Stigma series, that adheres to the display conventions of a square or rectangle hung on the gallery wall approximately at the viewer’s eye level. Although the format differs, in every other respect the monochrome series continues her exploration of material and thematic contrasts. The series pairs two extreme material opposites, lead and feathers, which share the same mottled gray color. Heavy and light, soft and hard, become integrated in a single surface. From certain perspectives, the lead looks like it has been shot. It bends slightly upward around the edges of each wound to create a subtle lip; underneath, pigeon feathers cluster 10

together. From another perspective, this sense of violence disappears and the inset feathers could instead be seen as nests unexpectedly tucked beneath the lead surface. Other works reside in antique cabinets and refer back to the Victorian interest in naming and cataloging our natural world. Unusually, MccGwire explains that she creates sculptures that are “made to suit the cabinet” rather than the other way around. The result is a sense that the dimensions of each cabinet create the confined form of each sculpture. Narcis, made of Mallard feathers with two bulbous ends, hangs from a scientific clamp like a captured specimen under a glass dome. To acquire the clamp, MccGwire made a deal with a local school, purchasing new replacement clamps for the science lab to liberate the antiquated versions for her own artistic use. Close inspection reveals a ring of felt padding protecting the neck of the delicate specimen held in the clasp. Optical games also appear in work such as Cleave (think of the Rubin Vase double image of a centered white vase or two black faces in profile looking towards each other). The arching necks of swans appear, or the upper thighs of Surface Design Journal

Accumulation plays a central role in determining the scale of each piece.

KATE MCCGWIRE Slick Mixed media with magpie feathers, 98.4" x 98.4" x 23.6", 2010. Photo: Tessa Angus, courtesy of All Visual Arts.

legs with bent knees that culminate in a vortex of spiny quill tips. In fact, the opportunity to move around each sculpture is crucial to experiencing the visual contrasts found in each work. Unfortunately, what cannot be captured by even the most accurate photography is the sense of shifting colors created by the changing play of light across the surfaces of the feathers. Each sculpture may be static, but their seductive surfaces are not. While assembling the work is unquestionably painstaking, the finished objects are more robust than first glance would suggest. The surfaces emulate the overlapping pattern of feathers naturally occurring on a bird, making the sculptures relatively hardy. This resilience is unexpected considering the delicacy of these materials. But MccGwire is not working with a single feather. Instead, it feels as though she is building a mystical laboratory of new forms. The movement of her creations at times feels restricted, as if caught under glass or sliding along viscous pathways. It also feels important that there is nothing fraught about MccGwire’s encased sculptures, no sense of struggle or violence in her capture and display of these otherworldly specimens.

Where does all of this lead MccGwire? After a busy 2013 with exhibitions in Britain, Korea, France, and Germany, 2014 will occur on the move. Her studio in England is a Dutch Barge and the plan is “to take the studio with her” as she and her husband travel the waterways of Europe.

Kate MccGwire’s website is www.katemccgwire.com. Her solo show LURE will be on view at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury, England (through May 1, 2014), www.canterbury.co.uk/beaney/. Her work will be included in Birds of Paradise at the ModeMuseum (MoMu) in Antwerp, Belgium (through August 24, 2014), www.momu.be; in The Tourists at Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate of the National Trust in Norfolk, England (May 1–October 31, 2014), www.nationaltrust.org.uk/felbrigg-hall; and in Wonder of Birds at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (May 24–September 14, 2014), www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/Visit_Us/Norwich_Castle.

—Jessica Hemmings is Head of the Faculty of Visual Culture at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland. www.jessicahemmings.com

Spring2014

E POSURE TINA LAZZARINE Columbia, North Carolina Power Play Cotton, leather, copper, brass, kumo shibori, stitching, roller printing, soldering, and riveting, 3.5" x 8" x 11.5", 2013. Photo by the artist. www.tinalazzarine.com

MARIE-THERESE WISNIOWSKI Warners Bay, New South Wales, Australia Global Warming—Surviving Remnants Artist’s signature MultiSperse Dye Sublimation (MSDS) technique employing disperse dyes, resists and native flora on satin, 8" x 8", 2008. Collection of the Americas Biennial Exhibition & Archive Collection, University of Iowa. www.artquill.blogspot.com

ANDREA GRAHAM Odessa, Ontario, Canada Cleaning House (with detail) Cotton, latex, steel, assembled on wire armature, each 7' tall (installation dimensions variable), 2014. Photos: Dave Ajax. www.andrea-graham.com 50 50 50

Surface Design Journal

SABERAH MALIK Warwick, Rhode Island Stones From a Lesser Hand Silk organza, polyester fabrics, immersion dyes, ink, fabric marker, molding, shibori, hand painting, hand sewing, machine stitching, 7" x 36" x 18", 2011. Photo by the artist. www.saberahmalik.com

SAYWARD JOHNSON Ottowa, Ontario, Canada Old Growth (with detail) Copper wire, green patina, embroidery thread, resin, hand weaving, hand embroidery, 39.4" x 19.7", 2013. Photos by the artist. www.saywardjohnson.com

GEORGIA ROWSWELL Cheyenne, Wyoming Hot Yellowstone #1 Mixed media, compressed fabric, cast off textiles, 25" x 35", 2012. www.artfulhand.org

Artists represented on the “Exposure” pages are members of the Surface Design Association (SDA). This issue features the work of members who have populated their SDA profile pages with images and information about themselves and their work. This free and easy online service adds to the SDA Image Library and Member Directory; both are valuable research tools for curators, writers, collectors, and artists from all over the world. To learn more, log into your member account and follow the prompts, or visit the gallery at surfacedesign.org. 51 51 51

Spring2014

i nr eview Sebastopol, California Reviewed by Jo Ann C. Stabb

Innovations in Fiber Art VI Sebastopol Center for the Arts As this exhibition proves, artists who are undaunted by preconceived definitions have continually expanded the media classified as “fiber.” Jurors Susan Taber Avila, of the University of California—Davis, and California textile artist Joan Schulze reviewed over 500 international submissions for Innovations in Fiber Art VI. The 57 works selected for display at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts (October 24-November 30, 2013) captured the vibrant creativity in fiber art today. The award-winning pieces represent ingenious combinations of media and techniques. However, beyond some of the experimental media, such as plastic medical ID bracelets, the exhibition could be considered somewhat traditional in terms of formats. Wall pieces dominated with few exceptions. Mobius Disconnect by California artist Allegra Burke, with its long spine of stitched paper pages flaring

open, sinuously meandered across a tabletop pedestal. Another stand-alone entry was Desires, a bright red ladder formed from solidified hotglue, by Xia Gao of Michigan. Given the Innovations title of the exhibition, it is interesting that the Best in Show Award went to Kathleen Loomis of Kentucky for Crazed 16: Suburban Dream, a pieced and machine-sewn patchwork wall panel of striped commercial cotton fabrics. No doubt a visual tour de force, this complex mosaic of small squares and rectangles builds a sense of movement that captures the obsessive-compulsiveness of quilting—but does it represent innovation? Julie Sirek of Minnesota received the Second Place Award for her empty dress Slipping Away, made from disintegrating ochre paper overstitched with thread. It ironically contradicted the vintage brass men’s suit hanger from which it was suspended, imprinted with the promise “Keeps Coat in Perfect Shape.” Third Place was awarded to James Arendt of South Carolina for Ellie, a life-size portrait executed in topographical shadings of layered cut denim. The appliquéd and abstracted

KATHLEEN LOOMIS (Best of Show) Crazed 16: Suburban Dream Commercial cottons, machine piecing and quilting, 55" x 81", 2012.

Surface Design Journal

MELISSA CAMPBELL (Honorable Mention) A Hand Stacked cotton sateen (450 layers thick), digital printing, 5.5" x 5" x 5", 2012

figure of a young woman dramatically overlays a flattened pair of jeans with flaring black and gold wings. Suggesting a deeper story, its powerful graphics create a strong visual memorial. Several superb weavings represented advanced computerized loom-woven techniques. Key West by Nancy Middlebrook of Philadelphia features four panels of geometric patterning in rich tones of umber, ochre, and teal. Ordinary Words. Ancestry. Address Book I by Marjorie Durko Puryear of Massachusetts recreates a page from her grandfather’s tattered 1920s notebook, enhanced with digitally printed photographs on organza. One of the most outstanding works inspired by historic prototypes is Birds of Beebe Woods by Salley Mavor of Massachusetts. This 3D composition, framed in a glass vitrine, features exquisitely embroidered fabric birds entwined by trees and vines. The astonishing level of precise detail and pattern variation brings each bird to life and pays fresh homage to Victorian embroidery as a timeless, expressive drawing tool. Perhaps the most innovative format was presented by Ohio artist Melissa Campbell’s seemingly simple piece A Hand, recognized with an Honorable Mention. Consisting of cut fabric squares, each printed with a digital photo of a life-sized hand, the stack of 450 created a delicate unsewn cube. The full image of a hand, visible on the top, transformed into illusive ghostly repeats emerging from the raw frayed edges on all sides. It mysteriously suggests the increasing role of digital printing rapidly replacing hand-printing techniques. The show coordinators Joy Stocksdale and Bill Yoes created an outstanding installation, grouping related color palettes, themes, and sizes to enhance the surrounding works. This was the 6th biennial fiber-arts exhibition held at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, the first of international scope, and the first official collaboration with Surface Design Association. Its success bodes well for the next international show scheduled for 2015. www.sebarts.org

JULIE SIREK (Second Place Award) Slipping Away Korean Mulberry paper, Hanji papermaking, sewing, dyeing, waxing, 60" x 17", 2013. Photo: Rik Sferra. BELOW: JAMES ARENDT (Third Place Award) Ellie Cut denim, appliqué, 67" x 60", 2012.

—Jo Ann C. Stabb is an artist, lecturer, and author who served on the Design faculty of the University of California—Davis for over 30 years. Spring2014

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