Blog – Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh

Links of Interest

October 15, 2020 by Sue Reno

Moschino Sent Model Marionettes Sashaying Down the Runway, as Tiny Fashion Editors Looked On

Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott enlisted Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to create his Spring-Summer 2021 show on a miniature set populated entirely by marionettes. https://worldofwonder.net/moschino-sent-model-marionettes-to-sashay-down-the-runway-as-tiny-fashion-editors-looked-on-watch/

Two Fabric Homes by Artist Do Ho Suh Float Above an Atrium in Incheon International Airport.

Living and working in London, Korean artist Do Ho Suh (previously) is concerned with “home, physical space, displacement, memory, individuality, and collectivity,” ideas he evokes in his life-sized fabric sculptures and installations.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/do-ho-suh-home-within-home/

Studio Visit: Textile Artist Billie Zangewa on Gaining Inspiration Through Tidying Up and Why She Found Kusama an Acquired Taste.

Johannesburg-based Malawian artist Billie Zangewa—an on-the-rise textile creator—is best known for her powerful collages depicting scenes of domestic life in hand-stitched scraps of silk.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/billie-zangewa-1912709

Little Amal: An Enormous Puppet is Traveling 8,000 km to Shed Light on the Refugee Crisis

The 3.5-meter tall character, which was created by Handspring Puppet Company, will stop in 70 cities across Europe to meet with locals and participate in celebrations and education programs.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/little-amal/

Jeffrey Gibson: Culture, Materials, Identity and Trade

Over the last decade Jeffrey Gibson has moved from creating lyrical, abstracted acrylic landscape paintings with beaded and sculpted paint elements to a dizzingly multi-varied practice, which interfaces with the rubrics of fashion, gender, and ethnicity.

https://hyperallergic.com/589974/jeffrey-gibson-culture-materials-identity-and-trade/

Ethereal Photographs Capture Mono Giraud’s Sculptural Garments Formed with Organic Materials

Evoking sprawling sculptures, Giraud’s garments are often neutral-toned to maintain the integrity of the original material. Dresses flow down into pools of fabric that then form wrinkly backdrops, spools of twine are arranged to mimic a sash and headdress, and a woven basket pocked with straw perches on a subject’s head.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/mono-giraud-photographs-design/

Why we need soft textures right now

Fabric art and interiors are helping to make home the ultimate comfort zone. Dominic Lutyens talks to the creators of the cosy, tactile aesthetic.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20201005-why-we-need-soft-textures-right-now

H&M will let people convert old clothing items into new ones at Stockholm store

The Sweden-based retailer is about to start giving consumers at its Stockholm store the option to turn in used garments that it will then transform into one of three different clothing items.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/08/business/hm-clothing-recycling/index.html

Links of Interest

October 10, 2020 by Sue Reno

The Pandemic Won’t Stop These Artists from Creating

Guild member LaVerne Kemp is included in a new exhibition by Women of Visions that chronicles their thoughts, moments and imagination during the stay-at-home orders.

https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/the-pandemic-wont-stop-these-artists-from-creating/

Weavings and wall hangings by Igshaan Adams

In his first solo museum exhibition in the US, running until November at SCAD, Adams lines the walls and floors of the expansive Pamela Elaine Poetter Gallery.

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/igshaan-adams

A Tribute to a Lace-Knitting Legend: Olga Alexandrovna Fedorova

Olga realized that without worldwide access to its techniques, Orenburg-style lace knitting would be writing its final chapter. Olga Alexandrovna Fedorova made sure that it did not happen.

https://pieceworkmagazine.com/a-tribute-to-a-lace-knitting-legend-olga-alexandrovna-fedorova/

Monarchs, Milkweed, and You

Milkweed plants not only support threatened monarch butterfly populations, they produce several types of spinnable fiber!

https://spinoffmagazine.com/monarchs-milkweed-and-you/

Lacy, spray-painted murals are the gorgeous work of Warsaw based artist NeSpoon.

From Sicily to Spain, France to Croatia she is bringing the traditional lace of each area out of the linen closet and onto the walls of the town.

https://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2020/10/02/nespoon/

Miniature Mixed Media Lace Works Depict Pastoral Scenes in New Work by Ágnes Herczeg

Working within a scale of just a few inches, Hungarian artist Ágnes Herczeg threads together fragments of wood, seeds, and wire with delicate lace work to form pastoral scenes inspired in part by her surroundings in a small town near the river Danube.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/10/mixed-media-lace-agnes-herczeg/

Honoring Motherhood and the Mundane

Wings of Change, the forthcoming New York debut of Billie Zangewa, will bring together a selection of the artist’s tender silk collages, which revel in Black domestic intimacy.

https://hyperallergic.com/591248/billie-zangewa-lehmann-maupin-debut/

Nidiya Kusmaya is a textile artist and researcher from Sukabumi-West Java Indonesia, working with natural dyeing methods.

Currently she is doing research in combining kitchen and agricultural waste with materials such as micro fungus and bacteria to create colorants for textiles that are environmentally friendly.

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/grown-colours

A Collection of Lace Collars in Honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

One of the many things Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be remembered for is the iconic collars she wore with her black robes. In honor of the Supreme Court Justice’s passing, here’s a collection of white lace collars from the pages of PieceWork Magazine.

https://pieceworkmagazine.com/a-collection-of-lace-collars-in-honor-of-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg/

Call for Participation

October 8, 2020October 1, 2020 by Sue Reno

Here’s an important Call for Participation from members of the Guild. Please share to any artist friends who might want to participate.

Call for Participation

Virtual 10/27 commemoration organized by Jewish Family & Community Services. I hope it is helpful!

Last year JFCS organized some different activities for the community and it was very meaningful (here is a NY Times story in case people would like to know more). Community members helped to stuff backpacks for children going to immigration court, helped make blankets for newly arriving refugee families, and created felt hearts for themselves or their community (the last two events were organized by the Outreach Committee of the FiberArts Guild). This year, due to Covid-19 we are not able to host an event in person.

This year, JFCS is hoping to provide an online space for the community to connect with each other, with the theme of “Create Hope”. Here is the website so far: https://create.jfcspgh.org/

We are inviting community members to send pictures/videos of things that help them create hope in difficult times. Songs, poems, crafting, art, photographs, stories so that the broader community is able to view these posts and help keep hope in their hearts and commemorate the 10/27.

On the website, there is a link to submit your artwork.

We would also like to offer live or recorded workshops for community members to take part in. These would be activities that people can participate in from the comfort of their home. Such as knitting, crocheting, mosaic making, embroidery. JFCS would have organize the registration and set up Zoom for live workshops, so people would have support from staff in that regard.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you,

Yesmina

—

Yesmina Salib | Program Coordinator

Refugee and Immigrant Support Groups

JFCS Refugee & Immigrant Services

5743 Bartlett Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15217

Office: 412-422-7200 | Direct Dial: 412-904-5972

Links of Interest

September 24, 2020 by Sue Reno

Studio Visit: Rising Textile Art Star Bisa Butler on How to Use Fabric Like Paint and the Kind of Art She Finds Irredeemably Boring

Bisa Butler is having a well deserved moment in the sun.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/studio-visit-bisa-butler-1909491

Rosie Lee Tompkins’s Textiles Offer Windows Into Other Worlds

Tompkins’s quilts are at turns abstract beauties, political statements, faith-based texts, and textile craft.

https://hyperallergic.com/588839/rosie-lee-tompkins-a-retrospective-bampfa/

Textured Embroideries Capture the Thick patchwork of Scenic Farmland and Forests

Victoria Rose Richards creates minature worlds through embroidery.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/09/victoria-rose-richards-embroideries/

Bees Encase Raw-Material Embroideries with Honeycomb in New Encaustic Works by Ava Roth

A fascinating use of materials and resources.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/09/honeybee-artworks-ava-roth/

Ghanaian Artist Patrick Quarm Weaves Together Vibrant Tapestries That Reflect His Personal Experiences.

Quarm earned his MFA in Texas before returning to his native country, where he lives and works.

https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/patrick-quarm-salvaged-imperial-1908691

Christine Mayer is a Berlin-based fashion designer has built a fashion career on re-purposing clothing and breathing new life into old garments.

She is a pioneer of three-dimensional free draping with fabric, an art form she has adapted and developed from her studies in classical Japanese drapery.

https://www.selvedge.org/products/christine-mayer-upcycled-fashion-germany

Joana Vasconcelos: Beyond

Vasconcelos creates vibrant sculpture, using fabric, needlework and crochet alongside everyday objects from saucepans to wheel hubs. She frequently uses items associated with domestic work and craft to comment from a feminist perspective on national and collective identity, cultural tradition and women’s roles in society.

https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/joana-vasconcelos-beyond

How to Safely Store (Most) Textiles: Part 3

Learn how to safely store your textiles and how to combat the three enemies of cloth.

https://pieceworkmagazine.com/how-to-safely-store-most-textiles-part-3/

The Pendleton Problem: When Does Cultural Appreciation Tip Into Appropriation?

Designers weigh in on the fine line that divides the two when it comes to home decor.

https://www.dwell.com/article/cultural-appropriation-home-decor-pendleton-60491a02

How to do a reverse image search.

How do you find who’s stolen your art for their website?

How do you find the source of an image you want to use?

https://www.artbusinessinfo.com/how-to-do-a-reverse-image-search.html?

Banksy Loses Trademark Case to Greeting Card Company

Not specifically fiberart related, but a very interesting interpretation of copyright law.

https://hyperallergic.com/589021/banksy-flower-thrower-trademark/

Links of Interest

September 15, 2020 by Sue Reno

Here’s a cornucopia of wonderful fiberart related links for your enjoyment!

A fascinating look at Nick Cave’s new exhibit.

A Staggering Sculptural Rug by Artist Faig Ahmed Pours into an Amorphous Puddle

A triumph conceptually and technically.

Puddle https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/09/faig-ahmed-doubts/

An Interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer:

Her book Braiding Sweetgrass has been a surprise bestseller. The nature writer talks about her fight for plant rights, and why she hopes the pandemic will increase human compassion for the natural world.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/23/robin-wall-kimmerer-people-cant-understand-the-world-as-a-gift-unless-someone-shows-them-how

Uncoiled Rope Sprawls Across Canvases and Open Spaces in Organis Forms by Artist Janaina Mello Landini:

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/09/janaina-mello-landini-rope-artworks/

In Sonia Gomes’s Hands, Textiles Evoke Resilience

With her New York debut on the horizon, the Afro-Brazilian artist, known for her seductive, textile-based sculptures, is finally, and rightfully, receiving international recognition.

https://hyperallergic.com/585578/sonia-gomes-new-york-debut-pace-gallery/

In His New Works, Sanford Biggers Finds a Future Ethnography

In his new series, the artist has created 60 works created directly on or made from pre-1900 antique quilts.

https://hyperallergic.com/584229/sanford-biggers-codeswitch/

Herbert Niebling: Grand Master of Lace Knitting

Niebling’s designs are not for the faint of heart or the impatient knitter. Some of his larger table covers contain as many as 300 rows, with the outer rows comprising hundreds of stitches, all to be worked in fine thread from pages of complex charts.

https://pieceworkmagazine.com/herbert-niebling-grand-master-of-lace-knitting/

Clarissa Callesen: Sculpting new life from old textiles

Clarissa Callesen is known for her textural sculptures and installations made with found objects and recycled materials. Her creations are visually stimulating, with the appearance of a fermenting, growing mass of textile-covered, stitched and wrapped shapes.

https://www.textileartist.org/clarissa-callesen-sculpting-new-life-from-old-textiles

Suchitra Mattai, textile installations using colorful vintage saris

“I am interested in giving voice to people whose voices were historically quieted. Using both my own family’s ocean migrations and research on the period of colonial indentured labor during the 19^th Century, I seek to expand our sense of “history.” Re-writing this colonial history contributes to contemporary dialogue by making visible the struggles and perseverance of those who lived it. I often focus on women and employ practices and materials associated with the domestic sphere such as embroidery, weaving, etc”

https://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/2020/09/09/suchitra-mattai/

Red Flags Are Flying at Rockefeller Center

Andy Goldsworthy’s installation seeks to signal anti-imperialism at a notoriously capitalist site.

https://hyperallergic.com/587005/red-flags-andy-goldsworthy-rockefeller-center/

WTA Biennial Chile: a YouTube channel with a tremendous selection of short videos, many of them fiber related:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl6Bs-9eJS_T1uKxZnwGIMg/videos

Fiber craft elevated to art in the hands of an expert at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Mary Weahkee, an archaeologist for the State of New Mexico, was commissioned by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe to re-create the ancient craft of making a blanket from thousands of turkey feathers.