A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee 1 THREADCOMMONA curated by Ashanti McGee Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 2, 2021–July 24, 2021 Adriana Chavez, Ashley Hairston Doughty, Yacine Tilala Fall, Noelle Garcia, Isar King, Tiffany Lin, Desire Moheb-Zandi, Lyssa Park, Ailene Pasco
A COMMON THREAD weaves together culture, politic, identity, and beauty as it explores the ‘radical possibilities of new textile forms’. Curator Ashanti McGee, embraced the opportunity to bring these nine womxn artists of color together to visually express the ‘idea of lineage through textile’. Using mediums and materials as diverse and powerful as their backgrounds, each artist is continuing the conversation of liberation for womxn of color that their ancestors began with the handwork that supported their daily lives. The artists testify to being influenced by the skill and love of their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. They acknowledge the work of artists like Dyani White Hawk, Joyce Scott, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, Ana Mendieta, Howardena Pindell, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Ruth Asawa, Renee Green, Ghislaine Sabiti, and more. A vibrant patchwork of womxn committed to making their voices heard and seen. A sisterhood of creators that define, value, and uplift womxn’s work.
Textile art, whether knitting, beading, embroidery, felting, crochet, fabric collage, stitching, weaving, or quilting, is the culmination of relationship and connection. The artists exhibited here invite you to engage deeply with the story and composition of their work so that you can become a continuation of the thread that binds us all together.
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Jocelyn Jackson Creative Capital Awardee People’s Kitchen Collective JUSTUS Kitchen
I work with these beads that my Grandmother taught my Mom and me to use with honest intention. These beads connect us. There is more that connects us than divides us. Our love and sisterhood is our common thread.
What you say and how you say it does have an impact. Let’s move beyond hypocritical shaming and judgment of our garmentssmellancestors.Senseidentities.yourmotherTouchthedirtfromherfeet,thefoodinherpots,andwearthethatgracedherbodies.I’mnotrecordedinmyownfamilybook.Theerasureofwomenwasandisstillacommonevent.Idefineandmakemyownfreedom.
Womxn are living and breathing history. Create the space to be yourself. To be in your body. To be of your family and also free. Continue this tradition of recognized.sotimereimagination.radicalTaketoknowhistorywecanbetterknowourselvesandhowtomoveforward.It’stimewomxnareOurwomxnancestorsinvented,perfected,andpassedonthisworktous.Wehavebeenpartofhistoryandculturesincedayone.
ADRIANA CHAVEZ MEXICAN ASHLEYDOUGHTYHAIRSTON BLACK AMERICAN YACINEFALLTILALA SENEGALESE AMERICAN NOELLE GARCIA KLAMATH AND PAIUTE ISAR KING AFRICAN AMERICAN TIFFANY LIN 2ND TAIWANESE-AMERICANGENERATION DESIREZANDIMOHEBUZBEK TURKISH IRANIAN LYSSA PARK 1.5 KOREANGENERATIONAMERICAN AILENE PASCO TAGALOG
A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee 1
Use everything. Reuse everything. Put your heart and soul and sorrows and joys into what you create. We need it all.
2 A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee Lyssa Park Family Tree (Female), 2020 Acrylic, paper, thread, and gold leaf 6 x 3 feet Family Tree (Male), 2020 Acrylic, paper, thread, and gold leaf 3 x 6 feet
4 A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee Yacine Tilala Fall Self Portrait (Jigéen, Jabar, Yaye, Ndey), Hand2021 sewn mask made with Senegalese textiles/fabric, turmeric, lemon, lemon rinds, and honey 41 x 74 inches Phthalo Meditation, 2017 Phthalo blue acrylic paint, burlap, and twine rope 40 x 44 inches
Ashley Hairston Doughty N.O.Y.F.B., Installation:2014Amock meeting area with messages hidden in the decor 34 x 67 inches Ailene Pasco Wide-mouth Drinking Bowl, 2020 Used plastic bags 10 x 4 inches Water Jug, 2020 Used plastic bags 10 x 6 inches Standing Pot, 2020 Used plastic bags 9 x 8 inches Cylindrical Vase, 2020 Used plastic bags 6.5 x 3 inches
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Desire Moheb-Zandi Not afraid of love, 2021 Cotton thread, paper, plastic, and velvet yarn 78.7 x 55.1 inches
A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee 11 Isar King Black Sweat—Diamonds and Gold, 2002 Gold accented African fabric quilted in gold thread 30 x 37 inches Erica Vital-Lazare Neith, 2021
12 A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee Tiffany Lin the sky we built, 2021 Playground parachute, thread, public activation 20 feet BETSY ROSS GOT THE BLUES, Hand-dyed2017 indigo muslin, 2embroideryx3feet
A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee 13 Noelle Garcia Cowboy Gun (Revolver), 2021 Mixed media 11 x 4.5 x 1 inch
14 A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee Adriana Chavez Finding My Light, 2021 Plastic, fabric, thread, yarn, plant materials, segments of artist’s grandmother’s clothing and embroidery El Traje de Ninfa, 2021 Artist’s maternal grandmother’s pink suit, found writings and her personal objects, plastic, red roses, embroidery thread, safety pins and bubble wrap 47 x 76.25 inches
Adriana Chavez is a queer interdisciplinary performer, director, educator and image maker who strives to embody diverse perspectives of the human condition through her work. She has worked with the NYC Clown Theater Festival, the Naked Empire Bouffon Company, CA/MA, Shakespeare & Company, MA, and with many institutions across Nevada, including Majestic Repertory Theatre, Las Vegas Theatre Company, A Public Fit, Meow Wolf and participated in the Inaugural Bullfrog Biennial at the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Chavez holds an MFA in Ensemble-based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She is based in Las Vegas.
Yacine Tilala Fall is an interdisciplinary conceptual artist. She received a BFA from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Using performance, sculpture, painting and natural materials,her work investigates identity, politics, and history through the lens of the body. Her work and practice speaks to the human body and its entangled relationship with the natural environment. A Senegalese heritage and an American upbringing informs her practice.
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Noelle Garcia Based in the Chicago area, Noelle Garcia is an artist and educator who focuses on themes of identity, family history and recovered narratives in her work. She is an indigenous artist from the Klamath and Paiute tribes. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Her paintings, drawings, and soft sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and institutions across the United States. Garcia has earned awards and fellowships at various institutions such as the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Nevada Arts Council, the Illinois Arts Council, and the American Indian Graduate Center. She currently teaches as an Adjunct Faculty at National Louis University and is a Teaching Artist with the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education, where she was the Program and Research Associate for five years. Artist Residencies include OxBow, ACRE, and Ucross.
Ashley Hairston Doughty holds a BFA in Visual Communications from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has received awards from the Caxton Club, the College Book Arts Association, and Arion Press. Currently an Assistant Professor of Art at UNLV, she uses her business, Design Kettle, to create design projects with an emphasis on meaningful storytelling.
A COMMON THREAD curated by Ashanti McGee ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Tiffany Lin is a visual artist whose work examines how power is expressed in the subtext of American vernacular. Through a multidisciplinary practice that spans drawing, writing, and performance, she demonstrates how language and data are deployed tactically to reify colonial legacies and state power. Utilizing both creative and sociological methods, she combines participatory action, interviews, and social theory to support her claim that desire and belonging in the United States are mediated by external politics. Lin holds a MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Illustration Practice and a BA in Gender & Women’s Studies and Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. She currently lives and works in Las Vegas where she joins the Department of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Desire Moheb-Zandi was born in Germany and raised in Adana, Turkey. She traces her current textile art practice back to childhood
Isar King was born in New York City. She was introduced to textiles by her mother, who sewed the majority of her children’s Sunday clothes. “She made us matching dresses from the fabric that she purchased from little local shops on Delancey Street or from the Prospect Place market,” the artist recalls. Later her father found work at a fashion production company. “The company tossed away more fabric than we could have acquired in a lifetime. My life around textiles has evolved into various areas since those days. However, I will never forget waiting for my mom to select fabric to make us those “mother and daughter dresses” while I played in the button barrels in those dusty drygood stores.” King studied at New York’s High School of Fashion Industries and received a BA in Anthropology & Ethnic Studies from UNLV. A former Social Services Coordinator for South Fork Band Council of Western Shoshone and the founder of a handmade fashion business, she currently works as an Arts Instructor for the City of Las Vegas.
