Fibers can be found in all the fabrics of our lives. Whether in our clothing, carpet or blankets, fibers are the strands that hold material together. Fibers are crucial to the textile industry and are a famous, but often underrated, medium of art history.
“Fiber is a field of art-making as old as painting or sculpture and is equally as steeped in tradition,” Michele Fricke said in the New Fibers 2010 catalogue. “However most art history courses touch only briefly on the history of textiles, if they mention it at all.”
Fricke is both a professor and program head of Art History at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Mo.
The art department at Eastern Michigan University is honoring fiber with its current exhibit “New Fibers,” which has caused students to see the art of fibers from a different perspective from what we are used to seeing in our everyday lives.
“It looks like they take a lot of time to do these,” said Andrew Sliwinski, a 23-year-old art major at EMU.
“I like this one because it’s something new,” he said as he pointed to Jodi Colella’s piece entitled “One Day” made up of repurposed plastic newspaper sleeves collected daily by artist and community.
Collela created this piece to be three-dimensional with dimensions of 48” x 43” x 12”, by using everyday material not usually found in objects traditionally thought of as fibers. She won the Pat Williams award, a special memory award worth $250 for this piece and was not alone in the list of award winners.
A first-place award was given to Suzanne Hesh, who won $1,000, provided by the non-profit Fiber Arts Network of Michigan, for her piece “Common Truth,” which was words such as “fantasy” and “promise” brought together with thread, acrylic paint and embroidery.
A second-place award of $750, provided by the Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Guild, was awarded to Amy Gross for her piece “Red Blooming Biotape,” a three-dimensional sculpture made out of a variety of materials.
A third-place award of $500, provided by Michigan Surface design, was granted to Donna Rosenthal for her piece “Superwoman,” featuring three tiny dresses of different styles. One dress had the word “Tender” printed on it, one had “Confident” and one had “Passionate.” These dresses were made out of vintage romance novels and comics, among other materials.
“I was expecting all the pieces to hang on the wall like blankets but was surprised to see that there is also sculptures that hang from the ceiling and a variety of materials,” said Sarah Banas, 22, an art education student at EMU.
Curated by Tracy Krumm, the exhibit features works of art created by FAN. The 2010 New Fibers catalogue said FAN, “was founded on the belief in the handmade, one-of-a-kind fiber object and is dedicated to promoting its value in contemporary life and art.”
“I don’t have much background in fibers,” Banas said, “but this was a good introduction to all the different varieties of what can be done.”
This matches the reaction Krumm seemed to be searching for when selecting the different pieces to exhibit.
“I look(ed) for the unpredictable and innovative, the fabulously crafted and well resolved, and kept my eyes open for the spectacular,” Krumm said. “Though most of the work I reviewed was situated within a comfortable definition of fiber, I hope I was able to gather a range of pieces that challenge even the simplest questions by responding with more complex ones.” The exhibit will be on display until Dec. 10 in EMU’s University Gallery.
