Art cloth springs from revered fine
craft traditions.
In Asian culture, for example, artisans
who spend their whole lives perfecting
dyeing and weaving skills are honored
with the title National Living Treasure. In
the United States, traditional crafts - quilt
making, basketry, ceramics, weaving and
metalwork - have always occupied a
special niche - renowned as examples of
the human impulse to create. During the
past thirty years many traditional craft
forms have evolved into something more
than perfectly executed, functional works.
Nonfunctional pieces - in basketry,
metalwork, ceramics and glass - are all
examples of the finely crafted "object", a
work of art with roots in a craft medium.
Art Cloth is . . .
cloth transformed
by adding or subtracting color,
line, shape, texture, value, or fiber
to create a compelling surface.
"Art Quilts" sprang from the uniquely
American tradition of piecing cloth and
sewing it into a layered bed covering. As
mundanely useful objects, traditional quilts
offered women with limited artistic
opportunities a chance to explore color
and pattern in a socially approved setting.
The move to appropriate the quilt as a
nonfunctional art form - literally taking it off
the bed and hanging it on the wall - was
stimulated at least in part by an updated
version of this sensibility. Art quilt makers
found appeal in the link to the past and to
other women, in the recycled aspects of
quilt making, and especially in the notion
that this was uncharted territory.
On Point
Russ Little
Similar impulse informs the growing
interest in "art cloth". With roots deeply
imbedded in the fertile soil of fine
craftsmanship, art cloth encourages the
entwining of branches that include
traditional women's work, high fashion
and historical textile processes like batik,
shibori and African mudcloth.
Cloth can also be collected with the intent
to keep it forever intact. Hung over a rod,
displayed against a wooden screen,
draped inside a lighted box, suspended
from the ceiling - art cloth is suited to the
world of small and personal spaces. A
collection doesn't have to take up much
room. It is interactive in a way few media
are.
This ability to invite interaction is part of what draws artists to the idea of cloth. The actions of
creating cloth are physical - lifting cloth into buckets of brilliant dye, washing it out later, ironing and
stretching. Folding and smoothing. A real satisfaction comes from the physical effort that goes into
making the cloth. It stems from an ongoing interaction with the process, and from an ongoing
interaction with the spirit of the cloth as each length approaches completion.
With luck, the interactivity continues. The viewer is involved and the owner is drawn in. If the piece is
to be transformed into some other object there is the dialogue about who and what it will be. If the
piece becomes part of a collection the interaction takes on a different character. But there is always
interaction. Owning art cloth is never static. It satisfies because it is active, it is tactile, and it is
personal.
Antique Balinese Batik
Pin Tucks
Barbara Schneider
Metamorphosis, detail
Mary-Ellen Latino
Jane Dunnewold
Art Cloth pays homage to all of these but
synthesizes them in a specifically
contemporary way. The cloth becomes an
object with a rightful existence as itself.
These one of a kind lengths tell stories,
challenge perceptions and invite
contemplation. Like all good works of art,
they refresh, renew or challenge, every
time they are encountered. Art cloth is
unique because it can also be transformed
- into home furnishings, and into individual
special garments - without being
compromised.