LENA KOLB

WRITTEN BY ANNEMARIE MAAG-TANCHAK

The act of ritual permeates all stages of Lena Kolb’s practice. She begins her process with a drawing or painting to give imagined ideas physical form, but primarily works in the medium of fibers, creating final works of woven hanging textiles. Weaving itself is an exercise in ceremony: the uniformity of the warp combines with the dedicated repetition of the weft to create compositions carefully imbued with patterns and symbols of personal importance to the artist. Through this process, Kolb is devoted to exploring the waxing and waning of grief long after a loss. Some of the symbols are drawn from the artist’s personal relationships—vessels with water pouring out of them call to the fact that she and her parents were all born under the sign Aquarius, the water bearer. Others come from her research of historical traditions related to mourning, such as flowers left at graves or carved into headstones. Among many other symbols are circular forms reminiscent of Möbius strips, a call to the cyclical nature of death and healing; flowing fabric and curtains are the veil between life and what comes after. Assigning meaning to each one and giving it careful placement creates an offering to those she has lost while maintaining a level of privacy, a simultaneous ritual of public memorial and personal intimacy.

Gentle hues of pinks and oranges together with bright blues and greens are purposely chosen to convey sympathy and care against an impulse to portray grief as exclusively painful. Through curved loops and flowing patterns, combined with the perceived dripping or distortion of objects, the interplay between representational and abstract forms signifies certainty about what we know in life and confusion about what we may not know about death and alternate forms of being. The initial visual impression of recognizable objects is both a protective layer above and an access point into the underlying symbolism and encoded narrative of the artist’s life experiences. Kolb doesn’t demand or expect the viewer to immediately interpret her work to be about grief and death. She hopes to communicate a much broader theme: by inscribing a new visual identity to loss and mourning, the unexplained is not something to be feared or avoided, and the unknowns in life become an opportunity for creation and remembrance

TO BE (detail, left) Wool, dye. 101”

KOLB DOESN’T DEMAND OR EXPECT THE VIEWER TO IMMEDIATELY INTERPRET HER WORK TO BE ABOUT GRIEF AND DEATH. SHE HOPES TO COMMUNICATE A MUCH BROADER THEME: BY INSCRIBING A NEW VISUAL IDENTITY TO LOSS AND MOURNING, THE UNEXPLAINED IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE FEARED OR AVOIDED, AND THE UNKNOWNS IN LIFE BECOME AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CREATION AND REMEMBRANCE.