4 minute read
Fieldwork: Revisiting traditional plant and craft processes on Governors Island
By Rachel Gisela Cohen
This past summer, SVACE’s Fine Arts residency participants visited GrowNYC, a nonprofit and one-acre urban farm located on Governors Island off the coast of Manhattan. The field trip was led by SVACE’s Artist Residency faculty member Iviva Olenick, who is currently participating in a multiyear collaboration with GrowNYC in their Teaching Garden. Iviva is a Brooklyn-born and based artist working at the intersection of textile handcrafts, social histories, oral narratives and agriculture. In addition to making artwork, Iviva is an arts educator and teaching artist who partners with local museums and nonprofits, such as GrowNYC, to lead hands-on art making for K – 12 students as well as adults in continuing education, undergraduate and graduate programs. She describes herself as having a deep connection to plants, the land and local ecologies, which she enacts through her propagation of textile plants and, more recently, medicinal plants. She then utilizes these natural materials in her own embroidery and textile artwork.
During the trip, residents harvested various plants and flowers from the farm, including medieval indigo, black-eyed Susan, echinacea, firewheel and Queen Anne’s lace. The residents used these plants and flowers to create natural dyes and prints, engaging in various processes like the salt rub indigo technique, which is part of Japanese and Korean traditions, and petal pounding, a newer alternative to bundle dying. Petal pounding is a quick way to transfer a plant’s image and color directly to fibers, which can be done in a matter of minutes. The process oftentimes leaves either an exact print of the hammered plant or a colorful yet ghostly transfer behind. The process is physical and can be cathartic; imagine the lull of the constant hammering and extracting of color from plant to fabric.
The experience offered residents the opportunity to learn more ways to incorporate various traditional and contemporary fiber- and plant-based processes in their own work as well as allowed room for experimentation and reinvention. Fine Arts Residency participant Dana Frayne told us more about her experience during the trip and the impact it had on her: “Iviva taught me a lot about listening more deeply to the rhythms of the Earth, and she inspired me to incorporate gifts from the Earth, such as pressed flowers and leaves into my art.” She further explains, “I was so moved by this experience that Iviva and I have continued to stay in contact after the residency ended, and I am grateful that this residency introduced me to a mentor who continues to encourage me on my path of understanding who I am and what I want to say as an artist.”
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