Several outstanding textile exhibitions opened during the recent World Textile Art Biennial VII here in Montevideo, and they remain open for the next few weeks. Do take time to see some of them if you’re here. On Sunday we visited a group show at the Municipal Exhibition Centre, Subte, on 18 de Julio, and found a terrific selection of medium- to large- works including several ceiling hung installations, covering a wide range of media and techniques, conventional and digitally modern.
My comments on each piece are totally uninfluenced by the catalogue of which there wasn’t even a gallery copy available. I was assured by the receptionist that there definitely is one, obtainable over at the nearby bookshop, but it being sunday, that was closed. Yesterday, Monday, was one of the funny optional or working holidays they often have here and some businesses, the banks and government offices close, other stuff is open, but it’s hard to predict which one will be open. As we’re half an hour out of the city area where all this is located, I’ve left it for another day. Ah, the delights of Uruguay are sometimes sadly blighted by illogical thought. I will get a copy, of course, but I simply had to write about how I felt about this exhibition NOW.
Did you know most people turn left when entering an exhibition or a retail centre? Predictably I did, and first up came across this piece which I think is my overall favourite in the show – We Are Islands by Bolivian artist Erika Ewel :
Erika Ewel, Bolivia, We Are Islands 100cm W x 140cm H approx.
Erika Ewel, Bolivia, We Are Islands, detail. “construimos fronteras” – we build barriers
It owes a lot to the tradition of patchwork, of course, though it is not layered, and therefore not quilted. Each square is of photographic printed texture suggesting landscape, on vinyl squares. All these squares have something embroidered on them by either hand and/or machine. Apart from the words (on which more later) there are embroidered circular shapes, and lines of stitches – ties? bonds? pathways? Some connect, others just finish abruptly, not seeming to have arrived anywhere. When I first saw this work, English C17 poet John Donne’s famous poem No Man Is An Island came to mind, beginning as it does with these immortal lines –
“No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.”
The words and phrases embroidered onto this work mentioned islands, isolation, barriers, wanting to leave, being alone … they sounded dark, and disturbed me, and I found myself asking Erika with some concern if they were her own feelings or someone else’s … Erika said they are her own, but in the following discussion she pointed out she herself is not suffering depression, but that these sayings and words refer to a general condition among people today. This english translation from her website still sounds to me a slightly grim view of the world: “Every being is an island, we live locked in our worlds, we build silences, we build barriers between us, we want to protect ourselves from the world, without realizing that we are isolated and left alone.” However, as Donne reminds us, none of us really are on our own, and it is incumbent on us all to be aware of, and responsive to, the people right by our sides.
With my own background of patchwork, hand and machine embroidery and quilting, I instantly related to this piece on a technical level. Unfortunately when I saw it sunday afternoon, the taped construction holding each square edge to edge had given way in one place on account of heat and humidity in the gallery, so in falling forward the viewer was able to see a bit of the back that revealed much about possible or likely steps in the making of this piece. It was educational and inspirational actually, and oddly enough it did not seem out of place to me, artist and teacher that I am … but then I realised it was not meant to be like that. When I successfully contacted Erika she told me it had been repaired after I left the gallery. These images were supplied by Erika Ewel herself, to replace the ones I took with the fallen flap hanging down – unfortunate but enlightening maybe, but I’ve binned those pics.
Ivan Sartor, Uruguay, Forensic Evidence 100cmW x 150cmH approx
Nearby is another piece coupling strong visual with carefully chosen title to produce a powerful piece. I doubt the catalogue will contradict me – my interpretation is that this is Sartor’s statement on the incarcerated and murdered victims of the dictadura, the military dictatorship of the 1970s-80s. Uruguay has never had a public truth commission or similar air clearing process to cover what went on in these dark years of its modern history, and there are many here who will not talk about this painful period, especially to foreign strangers. I know people who to this day will not patronise a certain shopping mall because part of it is housed in what were prison buildings from which some people disappeared, never to be heard of again. Though in recent years there have been reasonably publicised excavations of mass burial sites often in or near military sites, today it is an open secret that some high profile members of the military and general community who were actively involved in the brutality of that era still walk free, never having had to account for their actions or complicit silence at that time. It’s a touchy subject here. Thankyou, Ivan Sartor, for your thought provoking piece.
Embroidery always attracts me, and next was a life size self portrait on cream fabric in fine black hand stitch by Zina Katz of Argentina.
The most potentially creative stitch in my opinion, simple straight stitch is beautifully used here to create the look of a pen or pencil sketch. With all stitches, as the thread passes across the back of the fabric before coming up somewhere else on the front, a related but different pattern of lines develops there, too. Therefore this piece was hung so both sides could be enjoyed; and interestingly until I saw the angel wings on the back I had not noticed their subtle presence on the front. From her website I learned that Zina Katz’s love of and skill in both drawing and stitching frequently combine in double sided works, of which there are many images on line here
Zina Katz, Argentina, Self Portrait, front (upper) and back (below)
Carmen Tejada, Mexico, “Sin Maiz, Ho Hay Pais” 80cm W x 180cm H, approx.
The title literally means that without maize, (corn) there is no country. This beautiful pale creamy gold hanging used the husks of the corn for texture. I think but am not sure if it was woven or made with a rug hooking technique while the corn husks were still green. I imagine it is very fragile now the fibre has dried out.
Cecilia Koppmann of Argentina has this beautiful work on show, and I am very sorry I did not make note of the title – but I will add it in when I get the catalogue. Her sense of colour is rich as ever, and technically it is superb.
This next piece is gorgeous, and I apologise for shooting it on the angle – the upper and lower edges are both horizontal. Various textured papers and lacey fabrics including possibly paper doilies and other finely patterned fibre pieces, seem to have been painted and collaged onto a fabric base. Various pieces protrude beyond the border of the rectangular base, emphasising the lacey delicacy of this piece – it must be very light in weight. There’s a pocket along the top edge containing some thin supporting material holding the upper edge straight and flat against the wall … so why it has been mounted on the wall with these heavy clunky looking hooks, with no effort made to hide them from view – is way beyond me! and I cannot believe this was the artist’s doing. It totally detracts from the effect that should have been achieved.
On July 22 last I blogged of how in a little demo to visiting artist friend I had come up with a small group of samples of half circles inset into a contrasting background (there’s a pic in that link) I kept them up on my board for inspiration, not knowing what I should do with them but wanting to do something, definitely. And then I went off travelling.
Visiting USA family and friends in August, I was in Greeley, CO, the day of the recent Solar Eclipse over North America. Out on our daughter’s back lawn, equipped with eclipse viewing glasses, eclipse pizzas, gorgeous eclipse devilled eggs, solar eclipse vodka, sunkist raisins and lots of other appropriately named or labelled refreshments, we enjoyed a solar eclipse brunch party with some of her UNC Botany Department colleagues. Though we were not in the zone of total blackout, the effects were dramatic enough, including a temperature drop in a few minutes of eerie ‘dusk’ at about 11.15 am. The whole event was awesome.
After returning from my travels, it all clicked into place – I needed to do something ‘solar’ using these samples on my wall as a starting point. I have always loved these scales or dome shapes – which first appeared in my work 20 years ago, eg Pahoehoe 1 and 2, Afterglow and recently in the Kimberley quilts. Here they have become the dark and light sides of spheres, in the loosest sense possible, mis-shappen and mis-matched. There’s no such word but there should be a made-up one I can’t get out of my mind, ‘ecliptical’. I found enough of what to me are moonlight, nocturnal coloured fabric pieces and scraps – not my usual palette at all – and envisage lots of hand quilting in pale gold thread …
You know I love grids – and these units are trimmed to 4 1/2″. A new project is underway, positive vibes so far, it’s lunar rather than solar, and the list of title ideas contains interesting possibilities.
I’ll be speaking on this topic a couple of times over the next few weeks – in Colorado on monday 21st August, at the monthly meeting of the Front Range Contemporary Quilters, (a fabulous group I belonged to when we lived in CO) and to the delegates at the Ozquilt Conference dinner in Launceston Tasmania, on saturday September 9th.
I will be showing and commenting on work of talented Uruguayan mixed media textile artists such as Lilian Madfeswho unfortunately does not have her own website. However you can start here and search for other references to her online. From an exhibition of Lilian’s work in 2011, this piece, about 75cm sq, really fits within the definition of an ‘art quilt’ – at least two layers of fabric or something that serves as a fabric, held together by stitching or something that functions as stitch. Not here, but in the US, I have seen layers of fabric held together with stapling and even pinned with dresssmaking pins; in each case very pertinent to the theme of the work of art in which they were used.
Sure, why not? Memories of this particular achievement of mine came flooding back as I browsed in some old photo files recently. This group relate to a project I was involved in and blogged about in a 2009 post. Gloria Currie had emailed them that week, although I had seen some of them before on paper.
This first pic shows the letter side of the 36 double-sided quilts, each letter forming part of the entry signage to the Australian touring bicentenary exhibition of 1988. Every banner quilt was designed and produced in a major regional centre of Australia, with a designated letter on one side and on the reverse side a depiction of something typical from that particular region. It was all wonderfully coordinated by someone in Canberra, home of the Bicentennial Authority of the day.
Entrance to Australia’s Bicentinary travelling exhibition of 1988
The main centre of the huge gold mining industry in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields is the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder. Gold is still produced there today, even after nearly 130 years of continuous gold mining; and as the chief economic activity of that area it was obvious that gold and it’s history there would be the theme on our quilt’s reverse.
Members of Goldfingers Embroiderers and The Patchwork Pollies formed a group to carry out the big project, led by quilter Margery Goodall. With a desert landscape colour scheme throughout, our assigned letter was H, for which we chose traditional crazy patchwork, seen here with Margery standing in front. For the other side we settled on a traditional medallion-style design featuring a soft sculpture of one of the most fabulous gold nuggets ever found in Australia – the legendary Golden Eagle Nugget here with yours truly standing in front of it.
Margery Goodall and Alison Schwabe in front of the sides of the quilted banner.
I was happy to use my experience with free machine embroidery to depict some typical landscape, mining buildings and headframes on the surrounding red-brown fabric. When someone asked if I could do a gold nugget for the centre? I blithely agreed, having no real idea of how I’d do that, and knowing there would be no pattern source. I’m an experienced procrastinator with a finely tuned sense of just when I really need to just get on with it 🙂 So, after weeks of procrastinating and agonising over the folly of agreeing to make such a thing, and facing a fast approaching deadline, I finally got down to experimenting with samples, naturally. Once I focused under the pressure, the Golden Eagle Nugget took me about a day to figure out and make. I cut the shape from gold lame, toned it down in places with brown paint, layered that with batting and free machine quilted it to give the lumpy surface texture. I then backed that and stuffed some fibre filling between those layers and sewed it up like a little pillow. Phew! I was hugely relieved and just a bit proud of the result.
The Golden Eagle Nugget, soft sculpture by Alison Schwabe, 1987 ~ 25cm x ~ 15cm
Below the eagle is a little pic of the main street water fountain statue of the prospector Paddy Hannan whose discovery of gold nearby led to one of the most fabulous gold rushes the world has ever seen. What a joy to wander back in time through these photos, enjoying the memories and reminder of the proven value of making samples whenever entering uncharted territory!
Earlier this week I had a studio visit from local textile artist Lilian Madfes, and while she was here I gave her a demo/lesson in the basics of freehand patchwork piecing Next week I will go to her studio for her demo of the basics of silk painting, at which she is a master in a very creative way. When I had given her plenty to use to explore the technique if she wishes to, I talked about the dome-like shapes I often use in my designs and showed her how I do one. Sewing it up therefore made it a sample – and my readers know I’m keen on samples for trying out any new ideas and materials!
That first one is on the RH end of this pic. I liked it, so made more, and love where this is apparently going.
