Friday Fibers Roundup: Experiences in Cloth

February 9, 2018

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a variety of articles, interviews, and shows all showcasing personal narratives and experiences through blankets, quilts, and cloth.

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1) The exhibition, The Embedded Message: Quilting in Contemporary Art explores how a current generation of contemporary artists are employing quilt traditions and techniques to make social, political and personal commentary. Featured artists include: Gina Adams, Sanford Biggers, Maria Guzmán Capron, Kathryn Clark, Elizabeth Duffy, Aaron McIntosh, Tameka Norris, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sterling Ruby, Hank Willis Thomas, Vadis Turner, Ben Venom, and Saya Woolfalk.

2) The book HERstory Quilts: A Celebration of Strong Women by Susanne Miller Jones is a tribute to a selection of women who have shaped history through herstory. This rich collection of 108 mixed-media fiber art pieces celebrates extraordinary women who cracked glass ceilings, made important discoveries, or shook the world by breaking into fields dominated by men.

3) Ebony G. Patterson’s work confronts childhood and race with vibrant art.

4) “Wartime Quilts Honor Battles and Leaders, but Mostly Art” by Roberta Smith examines the exhibition War and Pieced: The Annette Gero Collection of Quilts From Military Fabrics featuring plenty of intricate wartime quilts made by soldiers, sailors, or regimental tailors in Europe and India.

5) “Intersectionality of Black, Queer Identities Showcased in Art by Cal State Long Beach’s Diedrick Brackens” by Stephanie Thai looks at how Brackens uses a loom to weave stories about racial injustice and the intersectionality of his identity as a queer black man living in America (via Q Voice News).

6) “An Important Archive of New York Quilt History Is Being Digitized” by Allison Meier looks at how The American Folk Art Museum is digitizing the New York Quilt Project, an archive of over 6,000 quilts and their histories (via Hyperallergic).

7) “How an Exhibition of Prayer Rugs Aims to Stand Up Against Trump’s Travel Ban” by Anna Furman spotlights how artists have designed 36 rugs that symbolize the importance of migration, stating that ‘borders themselves are a fiction’ (via the Guardian).

8) The Book Fly Me to the Moon: An Art Quilt Journey by Susanne Jones showcases the curated results of that call for entries for when the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, and the Fly Me to the Moon art quilt challenge went out.

9) Nan Collymore interviews Julia Bryan-Wilson in Art and Textile Politics.

10) “The Best Protest Banners of 2017 that You Can Borrow” by Mauricio Peña showcases Aram Han Sifuentes and the Protest Banner Lending Library’s reusable protest signs (via Chicago Mag).