Surface Design Journal - Summer/Fall 2015 - Sample Issue by Surface Design Association

Surface Design Journal

features 06

Lucia Cuba: Narratives of Gender, Strength, and Politics by Hazel Clark

Carole Frances Lung: Resisting the Global Garment Industry by Lisa Vinebaum

The Humanity of Fashion: Nicole Markoff and Adele Stafford by Leora Lutz

Laura Sansone: The Entrepreneurial Artist-Citizen by Sarah Margolis-Pineo

A Conversation with Rowland Ricketts by Namita Gupta Wiggers

Biodesign in Textiles by JoAnn C. Stabb

Maiwa: The Hidden Lives of Textiles by Tim McLaughlin

Karen Hampton: Storytelling through Textiles by Sarah Daniele Dickerson

The Ever-widening Vision of Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada by Barbara Shapiro

Summer/Fall 2015 Volume 39 Number 3

departments 56

Exposure A gallery of recent work by SDA Members

First Person Catharine Ellis

First Person Mary Babcock

Emerging Voices Sophie Strong

In Print Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism

Informed Source Homicide Quilt

In Review Toward Textiles Sheboygan, Wisconsin Alex Lockwood: Shake Seattle, Washington Global Threads Omaha, Nebraska

Spotlight on Education Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Gatlinburg, Tennessee

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Making a Difference Since joining Surface Design Journal as editor in 2012, I have wanted to publish issues at the start of each season on the calendar. This brings SDJ to members in anticipation of the new season, and is more attractive to current and potential advertisers. This transition year of dynamic change and growth for SDA creates an opportunity to make this happen. The Made/Aware issue launches the fall season! Our faithful readership will receive the third and final print edition for this year, Wax & Fiber Winter 2015-2016, in early December before the holidays begin. SDJ will return to the quarterly publication schedule in 2016, releasing issues in March, June, September, and December. In addition to print, all SDA members now enjoy access to a digital version of the Journal. This exciting new member benefit allows us to connect with more textile-arts lovers around the world and grow the organization in new ways. All good changes as we look to the future for SDA. This issue introduces many of the featured speakers who will inspire and inform us at the upcoming Made/Aware: Socially Engaged Practices SDA Craft + Concept Intensive 2015, hosted by the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (October 8-11, 2015). In addition to in-depth talks and workshops, attendees will enjoy seeing select works from the digital and print catalog for Materialities: Contemporary Textile Arts, the first international exhibition of SDA Members’ work, juried by Namita Gupta Wiggers. The roster of influential textile artists and entrepreneurs includes: Catharine Ellis, Carole Frances Lung, Charllotte Kwon, Rowland Ricketts, Laura Sansone, and Yoshiko I. Wada, to name just a few! Keynote speaker, artist, author, and advocate Mary Fisher will share her philanthropic experiences of working with artisans in Africa to create the 100 Good Deeds collection of handmade jewelry. Her story of making a lasting and impactful difference in the lives of others is not to be missed. “Live with joy and purpose, and you will inspire others, understand love, and be delighted to serve.” Time and opportunity are still on your side to attend. I look forward to seeing you there! To register, visit: surfacedesign.org/conference-2015

MARY FISHER (center) with artisans she trained to make bracelets for the 100 Good Deeds Bracelet Project at Gahaya Links partner organization, Rwanda, Africa, 2014. MARY FISHER She’s My Hero Phototransfer on cotton fabric, woodcuts and linocuts on cotton, silk and rayon threads, wool and beading threads, cotton batting, machine and hand appliqué and embellishments, machine and hand embroidery, machine quilting, hand painting, 49" x 37", 2009.

Marci Rae McDade journaleditor@surfacedesign.org COVER CREDIT: LUCIA CUBA Action #10: The Waiting/La Espera Detail, photographic essay image from the artist’s ARTICULO 6 project shot in Anta and Cusco, Peru in October 2013. Art Direction: Lucia Cuba.Models: Jessica Rojas, Flor Vergara, Nataly Zúniga, Pilar Trujillo. Photo: Erasmo Wong S. Summer/Fall2015

M E ET TH ESE M AK E RS. NAMITA GUPTA-WIGGERS Craft Critic & Curator

MARY FISHER Social Entrepreneur

ROWLAND RICKETTS Indigo Dye Master

YOSHIKO WADA Slow Fiber Advocate

CATHARINE ELLIS Natural Dyeing Advocate

CHARLLOTTE KWON Advocate for Artisans

LAURA SANSONE Ethical Fashion Activist

CAROLE FRANCES LUNG Fashion Provocateur

GET E N GAGE D.

MADE AWARE Meet these (and many other) movers, shakers & makers whose creative practices have community impact. Register now for this 3-in-1 opportunity to incubate new work in ARTS ACTIVISM, NATURAL DYEING & ETHICAL FASHION at:

MADE/AWARE: SOCIALLY ENGAGED PR ACTICES SDA CR AF T + CONCEPT INTENSIVE 2015 ARROWMONT SCHOOL OF ARTS AND CR AF TS GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE USA / OC TOBER 8 –11 Whether your projec t is personal, regional or global, this 3 - day immersion will incite & support bold action GET complete information on this extraordinary program of presenters, topics, demos, discussions, mini-labs + pre-conference workshops at WWW.SURFACEDESIGN.ORG/CONFERENCE-2015 CALL Arrowmont to register for conference & campus lodging at 865-436-5860

REGISTER NOW! SEE YOU AT ARROWMONT IN OCTOBER! VIEW MATERIALITIES: Contemporary Textile Arts juried exhibition of SDA members’ work while you’re there!

A selection of work from LUCIA CUBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ARTICULO 6: narratives of gender, strength and politics was featured in the exhibition New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2014.

6 Surface Design Journal

L u c i a

C u b a Narratives of Gender, Strength, and Politics

b y

H a z e l

C l a r k

The exhibition New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America, on display earlier this year at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, broke boundaries in presenting a diverse range of work from over 75 artists, designers, and craftspeople.1 Chosen according to region, the exhibits were varied and unexpected in content, materials, and techniques. Political agendas were often overt, and sometimes quite subtle. On the upper floor of the show, one exhibit featured dresses displayed on mannequins whose faces were half covered with masks. Both intriguing and puzzling, this work by Peruvian artist and designer Lucia Cuba formed part of a much larger project, ARTICULO 6, which employs fashion for political statement. When Cuba graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York in May 2012, she was among the first cohort of the MFA in Fashion Design and Society. Not a stereotypical fashion design experience, the program encourages students to consider the wider social dimensions of what we wear on our bodies. For Lucia, this has meant positioning garments as “agents of change”2 rather than merely as coverings or articles of adornment. This strategy has infused ARTICULO 6: narratives of gender, strength and politics, the project that Lucia began as a graduate student and has continued since. She refers to it as “an activist design project” that aims to raise awareness about the forced sterilizations that took place during the government of Alberto Fujimori in Peru (1996-2000). The title refers to the Sixth Article of the Second Chapter in the General Health Law of Peru, which establishes that “all persons have the right to choose freely the contraceptive method they prefer, and to receive appropriate information on the methods available and the risks.” Lucia describes ARTICULO 6 as exploring different narratives related to the case of forced sterilizations. She uses the testimonies of the people affected, fragments of political speeches, research documents and laws, as well as other textual and visual content, as raw materials for the project’s garment collection and 12 “Actions.” The garments, made with mixed techniques (embroidery, knitting, weaving, and printing), are based on the deconstruction and reinterpretation of typical items from Peruvian imaginary. Their production—serial and monochrome—refers to the standardization and militarization of public health policies, as well as to the strength, resistance, and fighting capacity of people to face the violation of their sexual and reproductive rights. The Actions generated by the project (expressed through performances, meta pieces, exhibitions, video, photo, conferences, installations, and workshops) show the impact and potential of garments to intervene in different social contexts, as

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LUCIA CUBA Action #1: Photographic Interaction/Interacción Fotográfica Photographic editorial activating the ARTICULO 6 fashion collection. Shot in Azpitia, Perú, April 2012. Photo: Erasmo Wong S. Model: Carla Rincón. Art Direction: Lucia Cuba.

well as their ability to generate alliances and enable further discussions between various stakeholders. “Article 6” garments are not intended as commercial objects, and their agency depends on a willingness of individuals and venues to activate them.3 The project comprises 34 pieces of clothing that reference textile and dress traditions of Peru as part of the 12 Actions. Action #1: Photographic Interaction/Interacción Fotográfica is composed of a series of photographs taken in the countryside in Azpitia, Peru, April 2012, that show how the formal aesthetic of the garments is inspired by reconfigured native Andean polleras or skirts. The blouses that accompany them reference the uniformity and militarization enforced by public policy. They are also intended to evoke the strength and capacity of victims to defend themselves, to overcome the physical and psychological irreversibility of forced sterilization. The garments are presented on models whose plaited hair falls over their faces, symbolizing the way in which the individual identities of the victims of atrocity were disregarded. The symbols and imagery printed and 8 Surface Design Journal

embroidered on the fabrics comment on the range of institutions, activists, press, and people related to the case. These images are visually striking, as are the designs themselves, at first masking the disturbing nature of their content. Reviewing Action #2: First/Primera, part of Cuba’s 2012 MFA graduate collection, The New York Times fashion journalist Eric Wilson commented on, “[A] simple design on canvas, it was printed with repeating black-and-white photographs of a small boy standing at attention. You might have thought the jacket verged on adorable,”4 until it was pointed out that this was a childhood image of Fujimori, the perpetrator of these human rights violations. Other Actions have taken place in different venues employing various media, including clothes, bodies, written text, and the spoken word. Action #3: Informed Consent/Consentimiento Informado was a meta piece that took place in public space in Cusco, Peru, as an interaction with researchers, local organizations, and the general public. Held in a variety of cultural, academic, and art-related contexts, Action #4: Conversations/Conversaciones centered on the project’s develop-

ment. Action #5: NYFW Runway Performance/NYFW performance en pasarela turned to the more familiar conventions of fashion in presenting models wearing the garments and objects as part of the MFA runway show held at Milk Studios during New York Fashion Week in September 2012. Later that fall, Action #6: Iterations/Iteraciones was presented in an exhibition as part of the II Iberoamerican Design Biennale (BID-DIMAD) in Madrid. As a result, ARTICULO 6 received the BID 2012 Fashion Design award and a special mention Design for Development award. Action #7: Exposed/Expuesto had eight manifestations, one entirely unplanned by the artist. Having seen Lucia’s Action #5 runway collection, stylists for the performer Lady Gaga requested access to some of the garments. They chose to dress the celebrity in pieces printed with the text of Article 6 for an MTV interview, shown on September 14, 2012, to launch her new perfume “Fame.” Although the celebrity was not making a statement about the project, her wearing the pieces generated an immediate and positive reaction in Peru, triggering a massive media response about the designs and the significance of the text. This action spurred conversations about the case as well as LUCIA CUBA Action #3: Informed Consent/Consentimiento Informado new ways of informing and touching upon differSeries of collaborative meta pieces were enacted in public spaces with ent social issues in Peru using garments as agents. the artist, researchers, local organizations, and the general public. Action #7 also involved the production of Summer/Fall2015

ABOVE: LUCIA CUBA Action 7: Exposed/Expuesto For the MTV interview launching her perfume “Fame,” celebrity musician Lady Gaga wore ARTICULO 6 garments printed with the text of the 6th Article of the General Health Law of Peru (MTV, 14/09/12). BOTTOM: LUCIA CUBA Action 7: Exposed/Expuesto Lima in ARTICULO 6 Printed as a poster, the text of Article 6 of the General Health Law of Peru was displayed on the walls of different streets in Lima. BELOW: LUCIA CUBA Action 9: United States of.../Estados unidos de... Alpaca fiber, cotton, silk, tapestry weaving, 2013. Two garments (from a series of 3) transpose the narratives of forcefully sterilized women in China, the US, and Peru. Photos: Erasmo Wong S. Model: Stefania Merea. Art Direction: Lucia Cuba.

LUCIA CUBA Action #5: NYFW Runway Performance/NYFW Performance en Pasarela The ARTICULO 6 collection presented during New York Fashion Week at Milk Studios as part of the Parsons MFA Fashion Design and Society runway show, September 2012.

LUCIA CUBA Action #10: The Waiting/La Espera Image from the ARTICULO 6 photographic essay project shot in Anta and Cusco, Peru. October 2013. Photo: Erasmo Wong S. Art Direction: Lucia Cuba.

posters printed with Article 6, which were placed on streets in Lima and other Peruvian cities. Action #8: Forzadas.Pe is a Web-based digital platform comprised of the many articles, videos, and reports that articulated the efforts of different people and organizations working towards the resolution of the case. It was followed by an installation of Action #9: United States of…/Estados Unidos de… at Invisible Dog Gallery, New York, in September 2013, the culmination of Cuba’s one-year residency at New York’s Textile Arts Center after graduation. Here, both the form and content of the pieces shifted to encompass handmade textiles and to reference forcibly sterilized women in China, the US, and Peru. Their narratives of discrimination and state violence are inscribed in three garments that create a single visible body of contexts marked by stigma, the extreme disregard of minorities’ and women’s voices, and the manipulation of the female body.The identities of the victims are obscured, as in Action #10: The Waiting/La Espera, a photographic project conducted in Peru in October 2013. Action #11: CAF Runway Performance/CAF Performance en Pasarela took place at the same time as a part of the third Design Biennale “Cusco Always in Fashion” at Plaza San Blas, Cusco. This was very symbolic, being the first time that the pieces were shown in Peru. The project started in Cusco in 2011 with an interview with two members of the Association of Forcefully Sterilized Women of Anta-Cusco (AMAEF-C), and this was also the city where a great number of cases were initially identified. Action #12 remains to be staged, but it is planned to take place in Lima to feature several of the manifestations that have happened during the three years of the project. Cuba’s aim is to inform wider audiences about the case, while opening conversations on sexual and reproductive health rights in Peru. The exhibition will sum up the significant impact of the project, and continue to help to further rethink the role of garments in our lives and their potential for agency in social and political contexts. 1New Territories: Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America

was presented at Museum of Arts and Design, New York (November 4, 2014–April 5, 2015). www.madmuseum.org 2Eric Wilson, “The New Masters of Parsons,” The New York Times, May 23, 2012. www.nytimes.com/2012/05/24/fashion/the-new-masters-of-parsons Accessed April 6, 2013 3www.luciacuba.com/en/projects#articulo-6 4Eric Wilson, 2012. Sincere thanks to Lucia Cuba for providing information and images for this article. www.luciacuba.com

—Hazel Clark is Professor of Design Studies, and Fashion Studies and Research Chair of Fashion at Parsons School of Design, New York. www.newschool.edu Summer/Fall2015

E POSURE JENNIFER COOKE Portland, Oregon Hexie Warp Cotton sateen, wool batting, nylon thread, procion dye, cold batch dyeing, machine quilting55" x 63", 2015. Photo: Sam Estrella www.jennifercookedesign.com

LORI ZIMMERMAN Los Angeles, California MENDING, ROE V WADE (1973) Cotton, embroidery floss, digital printing, hand embroidery, 14" x 9.5", 2014. Photos: Susan Einstein www.lorizimmerman.com

CHRIS MOTLEY San Francisco, California Up, Really Down and Up Wool Yarn, hand knitting, fulling, and stitching, 14” x 26” x 1”, 2015. Photo: Almac Camera; Don Felton. www.chrismotleyart.com 56 Surface Design Journal

AMANDA THATCH Bakersville, North Carolina ... And Again Handwoven cotton with Detroit-grown natural dyes (coreopsis, weld, indigo) and iron,warp ikat, 14" x 39", 2014. Photo by the artist. www.amandathatch.com ERIN E. CASTELLAN Asheville, North Carolina Auguri Auguri, ping pong ping pong Thread, yarn, sequins, latex paint, hand embroidery with yarn and thread on painted/pieced knits, hand knitting, felting, machine knitting, crocheted sequins, 37” x 36”, 2013. www.erinecastellan.com

SARA BAKKEN Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pink Coral Hot-worked sandblasted glass, silk organza treated with a kikaigumo shibori process, naturally dyed with beet juice, 7" x 7" x 4", 2014. Photo: Eddy Marenco. www.sarabakken.com Artists represented on the “Exposure” pages are members of the Surface Design Association (SDA). This issue features members who have been selected for Materialities: Contemporary Textile Arts, the first international juried SDA Members’ exhibition. The digital edition of the full-color catalog featuring 91 artists will be made available to all SDA members in October 2015. Print editions of this special publication can be ordered on the SDA website. surfacedesign.org/materialities-catalog Select works will be on display at the Sandra J. Blain Galleries at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee through October 31, 2015. A reception and gallery talk by juror Namita Gupta Wiggers will take place October 8, 2015 during the Made/Aware Intensive at Arrowmont (October 8-11, 2015). To register, visit: surfacedesign.org/conference-2015 Summer/Fall2015

i nr eview Sheboygan, Wisconsin Reviewed by Alison Gates

Toward Textiles John Michael Kohler Arts Center The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has a long history of exhibitions in textiles and fiber arts. Its latest effort Toward Textiles is billed as “an innovative series of exhibitions that expand our understanding of fiber-based art and its significance to current practice.” The Arts Center galleries ambitiously feature a 22-artist group exhibition called Material Fix; a two-person exhibit, Sandra Sheehy and Anna Zemánková: Botanical; and four solo shows by Ann Hamilton, Joan Livingstone, Carole Frances Lung, and Ebony G. Patterson. There should be something for everyone interested in fiber and textiles here. However, the overall impression is

not of the work of the artists, but rather a residual nagging concern about how and why we exhibit textiles and fiber art as we do. Naturally, the largest show Material Fix takes up the biggest gallery, and includes works by artists ranging from the extremely well-known to the unfamiliar. Many do not identify as “fiber artists,” and the range of subject matter, content, and even materials may be confusing to those not deeply involved in both contemporary art and textiles. While most of the artists do use textiles, the series of exhibits

Surface Design Journal

is rightly called Toward Textiles; in this case, textiles may or may not make up the bulk of a piece of art. Plastic combs, coffee-lids, lead, water, wire, fish tanks, video, and laminate shelving all make it into works that blur the boundaries between the more inclusive branches of the art world and the insular world of those who reserve the term ‘fiber art’ exclusively for quilts, embroideries, weavings, and wall-hangings. Many pieces are constructed purely from fiber and textile traditions, including works from Polly Apfelbaum who identifies as a painter, and Louise Bourgeois who traditionally appears on lists of the top 20th century sculptors. We simultaneously encounter the crafted tradition of domesticity and home in textiles in Material Fix, with autobiographical nods to family, religion, haptic memory, personal ritual, and, of course, textile history by artists who teach and show almost exclusively in fiber or textiles. None of the work in the show would be classified as utilitarian craft. Some, constructed purely of textile processes, is actually the strongest conceptually and displayed the clearest expression of content. The best of emotional or socio-political content can be found in the most traditional of fiber practices. Josh Faught’s weaving It Takes a Lifetime to Get Exactly Where You Are (2012) and Jen Bervin’s embroidery The Dickinson Fascicles (2006) function within the context of textiles history without overtly referencing the traditions of weaving or embroidery in their aesthetics. The work could not exist without the process, but in these pieces process serves a larger message. Viewing these works by artists who clearly have a sophisticated knowledge of materials, technique, and content is amazingly delightful at first. But upon consideration, one begins to wonder why all these works are here together. Curator Alison Ferris and assistant curator Karen Patterson set out to show the public the full range of textile art. Perhaps the unintended consequence is that the viewer is left wondering: If there are so many exceptions to the “rules” of fiberbased art, why do we classify this work in that particular way at all? The residual effect of Material Fix left me wanting the 22 artists to have their own

ABOVE: JEN BERVIN The Dickinson Fascicles: The Composite Marks of Fascicle 28 Detail, cotton and silk thread on cotton and muslin, embroidery, 72" x 96", 2006. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Don Tuttle. BELOW: Installation view of Joan Livingstone: Oddment[s] at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2015.

solo shows to see a range of works and an evolution of their individual styles. Material Fix should be seen as a sampler platter of good stuff, but be warned—you may not leave the table contented. Kindly, the JMKAC gives us a few more comprehensive and satisfying experiences with other exhibitions in the Toward Textiles series. Passing through the two front galleries, where a “meditation on observation” by Joan Livingstone and a surprisingly Spartan Ann Hamilton video installation are displayed, one reaches Ebony G. Patterson: Dead Treez. This well-designed exhibi-

LEFT: Installation view of Material Fix at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2015. FOREGROUND: POLLY APFELBAUM Bring Back the Funk Synthetic crushed velvet, hand dyeing, dimensions variable, 2013. Courtesy of the artist and Clifton Benevento Gallery, NY. Detail LEFT, TOP. BACKGROUND: JOSH FAUGHT It Takes a Lifetime to Get Exactly Where You Are Sequin trim, hemp, cedar blocks, cotton, polyester, wool, cochineal dye, straw hat with lace, toilet paper, paper towels, scrapbooking letters, silk handkerchief, indigo, political pins, disaster blanket, gourd, gold leaf, plaster cat, and nail polish, 96" x 240", 2012. Courtesy of Lisa Cooley Gallery, NY. Detail INSET LEFT. All images courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI.

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ABOVE: EBONY G. PATTERSON II Rosez Cotton, metal, glitter, plastic, glass, and mixed media, 108" x 234" overall (3 parts: 108" x 78" each), 2014. Installation view at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2015. Courtesy of the artist, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, and John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI. With detail. OPPOSITE PAGE: ANNA ZEMÁNKOVÁ Untitled Pastel, embroidery floss, and ink on paper, hand embroidery, 23.87" x 15.75", 1970s. Courtesy of the family of Anna Zemánková and Cavin Morris Gallery, NY. Photo: Jurate Veceraite.

tion of tapestries, displayed in dimly lit wallpapered spaces, is a revelation to behold. The text informs us that, “Embedded under layers of patterning and glitter are images, sourced from social media, of victims of violence.” This work is large, rich, and thought-provoking. Starting with digital photographs of victims of violence in Jamaican nightclubs, Patterson turns JPEGs (of the type typically offered by chainstore photo processors) into tapestries. The surface of the woven image is transformed with embellishments of glitter, costume jewelry fragments, and other sparkling, shining detritus that both calls attention to and distracts from the image of a broken human embedded in the weave structure. Finished with fringed braid, the tapestries are displayed low and flat, bringing to mind the litter on an unswept floor after a dance. Patterson is interested not only in the culture of violence depicted, but also in the phenomenon of individuals sharing images of victims via social media. The work visually addresses masculinity 70 Surface Design Journal

and an awkward unresolved attitude towards evidence of a brutality commonly experienced by the socially marginalized. Equally satisfying, and located both physically and emotionally opposite, is the two-person exhibit in the “old house” section of the Arts Center. Sandra Sheehy and Anna Zemánková: Botanical presents the 3D fiber constructions by a living artist (Sheehy) alongside framed wall-hung drawings by an artist posthumously re-examined (Zemánková). Each spent time in her garden constructing compositions, but neither documents the natural world in any scientific manner. Instead, the garden provides inspiration for more fantastical constructions on paper for Zemánková and includes embroidery, fringes, tassels, and other assorted haberdashery embellishing delicate color pencil drawings. Sheehy dispenses with the drawn element and uses sewing room stash to build form and surface in vaguely familiar, but not quite natural, sculptures. Sheehy’s weighty forms call to mind shells, seed-pods, logs, and cocoons.

Layers of delicate stuff build up until the end product is a self-supporting structure of apparent strength. Both artists honor the natural world without ever fully imitating it. Upon exiting, we are confronted by one more option. A constant at the JMKAC is the presence of an artist working within the Arts/Industry Program. Fittingly, the exhibition Carole Frances Lung: Factory to Factory features work done during Lung’s 2014 residency, when she used the Kohler Co. foundry to create sculptural objects, such as cast-iron pattern pieces and sewing machines. Taking on her alter-ego of “Frau Fiber,” Lung uses this opportunity to further her commentary on the treatment of garment factory workers. By opening the door for social practice and performance, Lung develops yet another layer of meaning in Towards Textiles. The entire series presents the public with an exhaustive examination of the vast possibilities within fiber and textile arts; and it raises many questions. On display at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin: Sandra Sheehy and Anna Zemánková: Botanical runs through August 30, 2015; Ebony Patterson: Dead Treez runs through September 13, 2015; Joan Livingstone: Oddment(s) and Ann Hamilton: Draw run through September 27, 2015; Material Fix and Carole Frances Lung: Factory to Factory are on display through October 11, 2015. All quotes are taken from the Kohler newsletter for March/April 2015. www.jmkac.org Ebony G. Patterson: Dead Treez will travel to the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (November 10, 2015 to April 3, 2016). www.madmuseum.org To read the feature article about Carole Frances Lung, turn to page 12.

—Artist and arts writer Alison Gates is the Chair of Art and Associate Professor of Art and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, where she teaches textiles and feminist art history and theory.

w h o ’ s

w h o

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