Alicia Henry

I went back to the Powerplant last week to see Alicia Henry's powerful exhibition, Witnessing for the second time.

 "Henry creates two-dimensional singular figures and group compositions that are commanding in their grace and expressiveness. "

 "Tender renditions of mother and child appear, as do groupings of more females that signifiy formations of families within communities"

 "Through their direct gaze and erect composure, Henry's multigenerational survivors exude a powerful strength and confidence.  They stand in anticipation of an egalitarian future - a utopian goal that underpins much of Henry's work"

 I am visiting the Powerplant in Toronto more this year because our daughter April (in above photo to demonstrate the gigantic scale of these wall mounted figures) is working right next door at Harbourfront craft and design studios as a resident artist this year.

I want to share the powerful simplicity and the confident handling of materials by Alicia Henry.  I was really moved and inspired by this exhibition. 

All text in quotes is from the pamphlet provided by The Power Plant. 

earth and air

I've named this piece Earth and Air, and I've been thinking about why I did.
Initially, it came out of the Luce Irigaray quote I was inspired by for my exhibition entitled The Cloud In Me.
"How do I make earth out of air and protect the cloud in me?"

The earth figure is intuitively pieced from men’s wool suiting fabrics.  These were dyed with a variety of plants gathered from the ditches and fields of Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada where I live.  The figure was hand quilted by hand to a linen tablecloth with coloured threads, a little red.

Surrounding the figure are wide expanses of torn linen damask table linens.  These strips have been pieced together so that the horizontal seams are exposed.  The raw edges seem fragile, but in truth they are strong.   This sky area has also been hand quilted to the tablecloth backing, with white silk thread.

The dualities contained in the work are:  horizontal / vertical, wool / linen, colour / white, male / female, and Manitoulin Island’s Indigenous / European settler societies.

This artwork is about the affirmation of nature and the support of the huge sky above and around all of us humans in the world.  We all, at some time in our lives, stand alone and look out over horizons.  We are all given access to our own inner immensity by such standing and looking, and we all feel connected to the place where we stand.   Being quiet and alone in nature, we begin to understand how the earth has been here a very long time and we begin to believe that it will continue.  

some questions to ponder

how does intimacy play into your work?

 is time always a central theme in your work?

 how do you conceptualize charting time through material?

can you speak about gratitude and surrender in the context of the quilt maker's relationship with her quilt?

 why do you often photograph your work outside in nature?

 you say that you make narrative metaphoric quilts, please explain

the raw edges of the torn linen damask express my open-hearted vulnerability
the wool string figure that stands up in the cloud of white air is slightly crooked
the self is both narrative and metaphor

when I realize that I can keep making quilts as long as I can thread a needle, I am full of gratitude

the stimulating questions in this post come from a young woman I spoke with on phone yesterday and I am still thinking about how I might best answer them
she was 21 years old, the same age I was when I made my first quilt.

"Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.   Live the questions now.  Perhaps then, someday, far in the future you will gradually, without even noticing, live your way into the answers "  From Letters to a Young Poet by  Rainer Maria Rilke

sculpted space within and without by Antony Gormley

I'll tell you why I became a sculptor.  What I care about most is making space.  Space that is within, yet also without.

I grew up in the 50's and when I was about 6 I had to have an enforced rest.  My bed was in a tiny hot space, so I told myself not to move.  I found that the space would get darker and cooler and larger, and after a few months I found that I looked forward to it.

That space is the place of imagination.
There are no things there.
It is limitless, it is endless.
That's the space that sculpture can connect us with.

The horizon.
Is art about trying to imagine what lies beyond the horizon?
Can we use the memory of a body to capture elemental time?
The tides.

100 of them
placed across 3 square miles at the mouth of the Mersey river
just outside of Liverpool.

Another Place by Antony Gormley
I visited last week (on my birthday).  The tide was going out.
The words in italics are bits I wrote down while listening to Antony Gormley speak. (here)

looking at the sky

 Looking at the Sky  silk, indigo dye, stitch resist 2010  Judith e Martin

I was going to write about teaching today, but not yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Today, I just want to think about repetition of mark

about memory and day dream

about birds murmuring

about stars up so high

about connecting outer with inner through these things

and through touch

Inspiration

"Vetruska" Marimekko fabric designed by Aino-Maija Metsola 2012

I continue to struggle with the studio(s) here at home that are no replacement for the light filled, high ceiling space in town that I had to move out of last summer.  Although I do have a pin wall in the one upstairs,  it's not even 8 feet high.  Right now this marimekko fabric is pinned up. 

Vetruska is such an interesting and edgy dot grid and so large.  Each repeat of the design is over 6 feet long, 5 feet wide. I find it to be very inspiring but how can I learn from it yet still keep my own voice?

In my second studio (another bedroom) I have been trying to create a drawing/painting place but it's really hard to get in there.  Right now that room is a mess because I used it to sort my old paintings for the exhibit that just went up at the local library. 

 Grow Into Understanding 2007 by  Ali Cavanaugh

But...things happen for reasons.  Here I am having a show of watercolours that feature my children, and by chance I opened the 2008 American Artist Watercolor magazine purchased years ago.   

Falling Through Your Redolence 2008 by Ali Cavanaugh

It was the article about Ali Cavanaugh's work that inspired me to buy that magazine then and it inspires me still. I love her use of emptiness, mystery, fabric pattern and the figure.   She spends a lot of time on preparatory photo shoots with her daughter and nieces as models, dressing them in her collection of vintage clothing. 
"The creative part of my process is capturing the figure in a pose that is emotional"  Ali Cavanaugh

Putting on Perfection 2008 by Ali Cavanaugh

There is information about this artist online here, here and here.
Daughter April is coming home for a week.  Perhaps she won't mind posing for me.

Vetruska, designed by Aino-Maija Metsola, for Marimekko

Fabric or figures?
One of the challenges I often face is that I get too many ideas so easily.  Does that happen to you as well?

wrapped

birch branches, fabrics, wrapped, 2008-2011 about nature the fragility of it

inner world

I think that there are three entryways to the inner self. The first is the senses, such as the sense of touch which unlocks unconscious memories. The second is a strong emotion such as wonder or anger because the body, mind and soul are totally consumed for a brief moment but the end result is self knowledge. The third path to the inner self is a large emptiness as it encourages contemplation. These garments were purchased at Frenchy's, a thrift store in Nova Scotia because of their beautiful fabrics. Wool, linen, silk, brand name clothing, most made in places like the Domincan Republic.
Stitched shut. Thin women.
We say that we are sorry.

all the same, each different

I love that these are individuals. Even though they re all the same, each is very different. I love that they fit in my hand. playful / serious