textiles

This show of fabric pieces by Louise Bourgeois sounds amazing and I really relate to her connection to textiles. "Made between 2002 and 2008 from clothes and other domestic effects collected by the artist over her decades long career, her fabric works are abstract in design yet intensely personal."

Here are two of my favorites:

This show made me think about a piece that I made while at Vermont Studio Center. Throughout the year that I spent in Vermont, I collected old handkerchiefs, dishtowels, pillows, lace, and bric-a-brac at the weekend yard (and barn!) sales. I didn't know what (if anything) I was going to make out of all of it ... I was just drawn to the tactility and beauty of the handmade objects, as well as the history behind them... the labor that goes into the embroidery.... the fact that many of them were so carefully made and then ended up in a pile of dusty linens in a barn.

I started dying the pieces different shades of green. This unified them and brought out the textures of the embroidery and lace...

I sewed the pieces together into one large banner-like rectangle and then photographed it by the river, on a very cold winter's day.

The greens looked so crisp and bright against the snow.

I'm not sure what else to say about it. It's a really sentimental piece and intricately connected to my year in Vermont.