Every three years the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh pulls together an international show meant to wow us all with the creativity of artists working with textiles. The 2010 exhibit included 81 people from 14 countries and after debuting in Pittsburgh, the show is now on a 3-stop national tour. One of those venues is our very own Memorial Art Gallery where the work may be viewed until July 3.
I visited the gallery this week and I will admit to only the few of you who read this blog: I have more questions than insight. So I’m going to put my questions out there and I invite anybody to challenge, share, illuminate, educate….whatever your take on this, I’m happy to pass along.
First, it feels like a HUGE SHOW. But none of the pieces is especially monumental in scale and in fact, many are tiny. So why does the show seem to inhale space?
Of the 81 included artists, I noted only two or three male names; all others are female. What does this say about the medium? Does tradition refuse to die? Is there something in the female DNA that pushes us to historic ritual (dying, spinning, weaving, needlework) or is this learned?
The overarching response to the work is WHAT TEDIUM! HOW MUCH PATIENCE IS REQUIRED TO DO THIS AND IS THE MAKER BLIND YET? But is this response appropriate/necessary/even a consideration to good/great art? Where is the line between technical virtuosity and artistic expression? And if you’re aware of the debate when you look at a piece, has the piece automatically failed as a work of art?
Jack Lenore Larson was trained in textile art (at Cranbrook I think?) and went on to develop and run one of the most successful commercial high-end designer textile firms in the world. (He also has a great garden that I’d love to visit someday.) Is he an artist or a brilliant businessman? Which box would he check?
International art star Cristo “wraps” buildings, bridges – Central Park and an island! - with fabric. Does this make him a “fiber artist?” Why not? Magdalena Abakanowicz (Polish I think?) exploded onto the international art world with her fiber “corpses”. I saw one of her shows last year at Davidson College in North Carolina and it was haunting. One of her works is at Storm King Art Park (in a glass Sleeping Beauty dome.) How does she fit into the world of textile art? Or has she jumped out of any material classification?
By naming the exhibit “Fiberarts,” have we already limited the artistic value?
No comments:
Post a Comment