
Ernesto NETO
Cai Cai Marrom
2007
polyamide, wood, spices
196 3/4 x 118 x 118 inches; 500 x 300 x 300 cm
Collection Perez Art Museum, Miami
Starting this summer at Southeast MO State University, I will be teaching a four-week Fibers Art Workshop course. I will also most likely be teaching our Fibers course during the regular semester for the 2018-2019 academic year. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity! Blake and I have been working more and more with fabric as a raw material and surface within our 2D and sculptural/installation work. This past summer, we taught a week-long workshop at Frogman’s called The Quilted Print, which involved basic woodcut printmaking techniques in combination with sewing and crochet. This workshop culminated in a two-month long exhibition of the students’ work called Dispatch which exhibited in Iowa and Oregon.
I found this great exhibition listing of the show Fiber: Sculpture 1960 – present, https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/exhibitions/fiber, and through that and some recommendations from friends have discovered a whole new army of fiber artists to look at and learn from. Here are some of my new (and old!) faves:

Xenobia Bailey, Sistah Paradise’s Mystic Domain installation.

Alexandra Bircken, Mixed Race, 2012, 90% nylon, 10% elastane, fabric stiffener, 142.5 x 239 cm. Image courtesy Herald St, London

Alexandra Bircken »New Model Army 1–5«, 2016
installation view at Kunstverein Hannover 2016
Courtesy BQ, Berlin, and Herald St, London
Photo: Raimund Zakowski

Ernesto NETO
Simple and light as a dream…the gravity don’t lie…just loves the time
2006
polyamide textile, nylon stockings, glass beads, styrofoam
15 x 24 x 18 feet; 4.5 x 7.5 x 5.5 meters

Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, 2011. Photo by Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.

“Sheila Hicks: 50 Years,” installation view, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media.

Tanya Aguiñiga, “Teetering of the Marginal” series
Photo by Joshua White/JW Pictures
Courtesy of the Artists and the Landing, Los Angeles

Josh Faught. It Takes a Lifetime to Get Exactly Where You Are, 2012; handwoven sequin trim, handwoven hemp, cedar blocks, cotton, polyester, wool, cochineal dye (from ground cochineal insects), straw hat with lace, toilet paper, paper towels, scrapbooking letters, Jacquard-woven reproduction of a panel from the AIDS Memorial Quilt, silk handkerchief, indigo dye, political pins, disaster blanket, gourd, gold leaf, plaster cat, cedar blocks, and nail polish; 8 x 20 ft. Courtesy of Lisa Cooley, New York.

Josh Faught. Untitled, 2012; disaster blanket, nail polish, and linen thread on canvas; 43 x 36 x 2 in. Courtesy of the Artist.

Ritzi and Peter Jacobi, Transilvania I, 1972 Flax, goat hair, and horsehair Textilmuseum, Heidelberg, West Germany

T-7 Pauseway, 2013
Knit and crocheted trims, laces and yarns; individual pieces installed on site for use, to make a place of congregation and conversation.

T-7 Pauseway, 2013
Knit and crocheted trims, laces and yarns; individual pieces installed on site for use, to make a place of congregation and conversation.
And… I’m going to have to do a part II of this new/old (to me) fibers artists because there are so many I want to share!
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