Rowing

 

One from a series entitled 'Me, We'.
Small daguerreotypes punched and then embroidered.

During the worst winter of Boston's history I have been hibernating, incubating, germinating, researching, ruminating, learning and quietly growing. It has been an uncomfortable space sometimes, and lonely, but productive.

It's been time spent trying to make meaning out of my values, ideas and experiences. Trying to sort through what I know, and what I think I know but don't. Synthesizing what I'm trying to say and how to say it. Figuring out what to include and what to leave out, both physically and in the abstract.

My thoughts are evolving so quickly, and my process so time intensive, that my sculptures begin with one idea and end with another. I'm unable to find the words for what I'm going through – words to capture the elusive process of process – and thus the absence of my usual blog chattiness.

It feels confusing and aimless with moments of frustration when it seems I'll never figure it out. But a good friend told me to let that part go, because it's about the figuring out, and if and when I do figure it out I'll have nothing left to say.

And then today I found this poem by Ann Sexton entitled 'Rowing'.  Below is an excerpt that particularly resonates with me. You can find the complete verse here.

I wore rubies and bought tomatoes
and now, in my middle age,
about nineteen in the head I'd say,
I am rowing, I am rowing
though the oarlocks stick and are rusty
and the sea blinks and rolls
like a worried eyeball,
but I am rowing, I am rowing,
though the wind pushes me back
and I know that that island will not be perfect,
it will have the flaws of life,
the absurdities of the dinner table,
but there will be a door
and I will open it
and I will get rid of the rat inside me,
the gnawing pestilential rat.
God will take it with his two hands
and embrace it.

It feels good to talk about it.

This Into That

Excited to be a part of the current exhibition at Nave Gallery Annex called This Into That. It is curated by Caleb Cole and opens Wednesday night with a reception from 6-8.

A trinket purchased at the thrift store, an old photo in a family album, a lost hat or scrap of paper picked up from the sidewalk–these items come with their own functions and meanings, but through artist intervention they can be transformed into something else entirely. This can mean giving items a new context, arranging them in unexpected combinations, adding to or subtracting from an object, or using something intended for one purpose as the content or material for a new work of art.

It is sure to be a blockbuster with a long list of very talented artists. Come join us or at least visit while it's up. I'll be gallery sitting on March  12  and 14.

Included are three of my embroidery studies from my residency in China. Click here to learn more.

While in China this past fall, I embroidered pages from a Mao propaganda magazine of the 1960s with a traditional Chinese pine needle stitch. 

I found the threads discarded as waste by a local factory and the magazines in my studio. Inspired by the craftsmanship of classical chinese embroidery, I chose this technique to impose an air of cultural form within the context of a nontraditional application. After completing these artworks, a colleague interpreted the writings as affirmations of Chairman Mao and his unification of China.

The masking of faces and political prose symbolizes the struggle of society vs. the individual in a country where top down communist rule combined with capitalism results in a confused sense of identity and direction. 

Depending on the viewer, the bright colors and designs invoked one of two reactions from the Chinese. Most smiled out of optimism and pride and a few snickered from cynicism.

OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, March 4, 2015; 6:00 pm-8:00 pm

EXHIBITION DATES:
March 4-28, 2015

LOCATION: Nave Gallery Annex, 53 Chester St, Somerville, MA

GALLERY HOURS:
Wednesday-Friday, 6:00-8:00 pm
Saturday, 2:00-8:00 pm
Sunday, 2:00 pm-6:00 pm

Power Figures

Power Figures are small sculptural studies in honor of African, tribal fetishes, Chinese dragons and other spirited cultural symbols. Inspired both by the words and work of Francis Bacon as well as my time living with the Chinese this past fall, these Power Figures are designed to “…seek to touch more closely on reality, a process of exploration based on instinct… A form of working dream.”

These works begin with stuffed toys as depositories of emotions for young and old, which are deconstructed and reassembled as faceless figures full of expression.  Invocations of power provoked by obsessive stitching with a needle and thread. Protective objects that conjure a perceptive experience rather than the limitation of visual appearances.

5 x 4.5 x 3 inches; deconstructed stuffed toy, embroidery,
needlefelting, wool and mixed fibers

5.5 x 3 x 4 inches; deconstructed stuffed toy, embroidery,
needlefelting, wool, steel wool, found threads

 

6 x 4 x 5.5 inches; Victoria Secret Dog, needlefelting,
wool, steel wool and string

November Works

The Chinese overwhelmingly had a positive response to the color and design of my folk sculpture 'Soldier'.
My response to the ideas of society vs. the individual.

At the end of the month in November at Da Wang Culture Highland, we had an exhibition of works created during the month by myself, Daniel Unsworth, Tom Hayes (both from Great Britain), Joop Haring (Holland) and Haitao (China).

It was a great opportunity to focus on the work accomplished during this time and wonderful to collaborate with the other artists while installing too. There were challenges in communicating about lighting and other issues to the gallery workers who didn't speak english... a very interesting experience all around.

Below are some images of the event. It was enlightening to witness the reactions and interpretations of the local Chinese to my artworks. It gave me another opportunity to understand them and their values.

Tom Hayes is a ceramicist who also works with iconography and the meaning of symbols. Here he planted grass seed beneath a porcelain slip in the image of one of his generic icon shapes.

'Ant' is my version of a symbol of emergent behaviors in an environment void of an traditional culture and ruled from the top down rather than organically from the bottom up. It's primitive color and craftsmanship appeal universally, some viewers identified it with Aztec or pre-Columbian folk art tradition and the Chinese identified with the color and pattern as their own. More on the story behind the making of this piece in the next blog post... stay tuned!

Daniel is a talented young fibre sculptor from Liverpool. Here he is exhibiting his crocheted suspension using found materials and natural dyes.

'Colony' is an installation using found clamps used for staging apparatus, and gold leaf. They are interlocked from the bottom up in a precarious agglomeration.

A good perspective of just how large the gallery is!

Joop Haring with his ceramic piece about the growing Shenzhen from 2013.
This year's exhibition is called 'Birdhouses of China.' 

Small studies of bundles using porcelain slip. While in residence where there is a fully equipped ceramics studio...
one needs to explore the medium right?

A very large bundle created from found fabrics and other materials. I saw it as a study of oppression vs. expression.
The Chinese were more optimistic, they saw it as an expression of China exploring who they are,
what shape will they become?

And of course, my embroideries...
read here to learn more about these works.

his post is part of a series documenting my experiences in China. 

Please follow previous entries by using the blog archive in the sidebar to the right. Or click here for the beginning. 

Embroideries

Arriving without a plan or much in the way of materials I looked to my environment for inspiration.

1. Absorbing China as a first time visitor provided me with an astounding amount of information.
2. The grounds of Da Wang were a minefield of found objects.
3. I inherited Mao propaganda magazines from Gideon Rubin, a painter who inhabited my space before I arrived.
4. In Dafen I became smitten with the elegant craftsmanship of the traditional embroidery, particularly their strict adherence to color, material and subject.
5. Steve Johnson's book Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software.

I'm still processing words to describe what I was thinking, but to put it simply, it had to do with how emergent behaviors develop organically over time from the bottom up and Chinese culture seems to be a product of top down control. According to Johnson top down approaches aren't sustainable, and yet the chaos in China seems to eventually result in an order of one dimension or another. In the swarms of people there, and the absence of the concept of an individual, everyone seems to share two concerns. First, to work towards the betterment of society's common goals. Second, to wrestle your way to the front of the line. China is full of contradictions like this, a very real human condition.

Read here about my first days in the studio, my rubbings, the magazines and initial steps with embroidery.

The window rubbings on handmade chinese paper, layered and then torn away to reveal 'happy' imagery from
Mao's heyday in the 1960's. 

These embroidered wheels are quintessentially Chinese. A traditional stitch, called 'The Pine Needle Stitch'
that is used to illustrate pine trees. They abstract beautifully, and create space and dimension with simple adjustments to size and density. Here it is used to simultaneously impose a Chinese cultural identity while obscuring the face of a person.  

More play with the Pine Needle stitch. I chose pages by their visual design which is dangerous territory when you can't interpret the words. This was translated for me at the opening after it was completed and hung. I don't know exact words but it is about the good Chairman Mao and all his good deeds for the people. There were two camps of interpretation by the Chinese who viewed it at the exhibition. Most felt it was an affirmation of Chairman Mao with bright, optimistic and beautiful flowers. Some others totally snickered at the irony.

This is the last one I worked on before moving on to my next project. The gold thread and pine needle stitch identify the aesthetics of tradition. The children adoring a very creepy doll with faces obscured by stitching symbolize the new consumption reality of a capitalist economy and the masking of the individual.

A local Chinese worker taking in the embroideries at our 'November Works' exhibition at Da Wang.

This post is part of a series documenting my experiences in China. 

Please follow previous entries by using the blog archive in the sidebar to the right. Or click here for the beginning. 

The Bus

My favorite activity was to walk to the village and hang out at the market. I would savor these trips and use them as a reward after a few productive days in the studio. If I had my druthers, I would have spent all my time wandering around with the locals. 

One always witnessed something special on these walks. This particular morning I met four women on their way to market carrying mallard ducks and chickens. I heard them before I saw them because the ducks were very vocal and not too happy about their situation.

On one of these days I was waiting for a bus to go to the neighboring village Wutongshan alongside a young man with long hair who seemed quite agitated. He was probably impatient because the buses weren't running as frequently as they usually do and we were waiting quite some time.

The village with the bus stop to the left. Bicycles are still viable modes of transport. We experienced every
sort of item strapped to the back, including a large purple couch when we were in Beijing.
They call them totems. Click here for more examples. 

The procedure for buses is surprisingly orderly considering all the chaos everywhere else. One enters in the front and exits out the back. You pay the driver as you enter in the front. This day, the bus was full so the young man hopped into the back door instead. Since it was my policy to copy everything, and for lack of knowing any better, I followed his lead and hopped in the back too.

The tight squeeze caused my foot to jam in the door and I couldn't move to let people out. This young man who earlier seemed a bit standoffish, quickly helped and insisted I move to his position higher on the stair and away from the door.

I was very moved by what I saw next. While the bus was barreling up the mountain, he took out his metro card and with both hands handed it to the person next to him who accepted it with both hands. This person handed it off to the person next to them with both hands and the third person again accepted it with both hands. This chain continued all the way to the front of the bus where the driver acknowledged it and sent it on its journey back, one by one, until it reached its owner.  

So, once again I follow his lead and handed my fare (two yuan) with both hands to the person next to me and started the brigade. It made it to the front and into the stile without a hitch and with lots of amusement among the Chinese. I clearly stood out in the crowd and was very different, but they treated me like one of them and had good humor and patience with all my foibles.

Once in Wutongshan I met up with a new chinese friend Tracy for tea. She brought me on an informal tour the neighboring studios within winding alleys full of character and inspiration. We ended up in one of a friend of hers and guess who it was? My crazy, chivalrous bus companion! We had a very good laugh together. This time we totally understood each other. Laughing doesn't require translation.

An alley of studio spaces of the main drag in Wutong Artist Village.

My bus rider friend with some of his masterpieces. He spent his formative years working in Dafen painting Van Gogh knockoffs. You can see the influence in the energy and color present in his current work.

More of my friend's outdoor studio.

Another outdoor ceramic studio. One of many along the river.

Wutongshan had a spiritual vibe. Here artists are building totems in the river where
they stayed up for weeks for everyone to enjoy.

This post is part of a series documenting my experiences in China. 

Please follow previous entries by using the blog archive in the sidebar to the right. Or click here for the beginning. 

线 Thread

Two days into my time at Da Wang my colleagues left for a 5-day field trip to Chengdu in Sichuan Province to visit the world's largest Buddha, sample the cuisine and explore the gallery scene. I was invited but with such short notice and only a month to work at the residency, I decided to stay behind. It seemed like the perfect situation to engross myself into working without distractions, and it was just that.

I wasn't physically alone. Ayi the cook, Miswang the housekeeper and Shiny the receptionist were there to assist me with anything I needed. But with the exception of Shiny, no one I interacted with spoke English. I ate several meals alone with sweet Ayi sitting across from me and us both just smiling at each other. I worked all day with many people around me but no one I could talk with. Add to this that most access on the internet is blocked by China's wall, which didn't matter since by this time we lost our wifi connection anyway. This type of isolation was a first for me. A strange social space for someone whose work is about engagement.

In the studio I was experimenting with the rubbings of the window onto the propaganda magazines and decided to add embroidery. I needed to find some needles and thread, preferably silk. So I enlisted Shiny and her dictionary to write out the symbols for all the items on my shopping list and off I went into Shenzhen city.

With Shiny's help I compiled a collection of chinese translations for my shopping list
and used them to communicate with in the city.

After a 20 minute walk to the village, and a 30 minute bus ride to Shaibu, I arrived at the fabric district armed with my book of Shiny's characters to be used like flashcards with any vendor who I could find. I was looking for thread and needles, but each person directed me to a bolt of a velvety fabric. After about 4 tries, it was clear that I didn't have the accurate translation. At this point I'd been searching for a few hours, and determined to return home with my tools, I was not ready to quit.

The fabric district is enormous with endless city blocks of tall buildings, each packed full
with hundred of vendors selling nothing but fabric. Seemed like a logical
place to shop for thread.

So the next time I was shown to the bolt, I pulled out a thread from the fabric and mimed a gesture for sewing. The young man, about 18, patiently spoke the word 'xiàn' and laughed. I once again shoved the book in front, with a pen, and asked if he could write it down (another mime).

For the uninitiated, Shenzhen is structured much like the internet, an unorganized wealth
of information that is unattainable without the use of a search engine like Google to find what you need.
For me negotiating Shenzhen was like working without a search engine.

With some encouraging and lots of laughing among his friends, he made me another flashcard, this time a single character for thread 线.... At least that's what I thought it was but who really knew?

My elusive chinese character for thread, xiàn.

It was in fact correct. I tried it out in the next building and was promptly led up 3 flights to a floor that was nothing but thread, zippers, buttons and other accessories. I felt victorious and happily went to work at trying to communicate with the lovely thread vendor who helped me choose colors.

Thank goodness for calculators as the universal communicator of numbers.
We negotiated pricing back and forth by punching in the appropriate amounts.
Where there's a will there's a way!

I left Da Wang for the city after lunch, and the sun was setting by the time I found my thread and needles. It wasn't silk like I wanted, but it's what I could get my hands on, it's what I had, and I would make it work.

Exhausted, I flagged a taxi and braced myself for yet another mime routine, this time with
the driver to get me back to Da Wang.

An embroidery study with my newly acquired threads!

The primitive character for thread.
A stamp I had carved to commemorate the day
and my new connection with China.

This post is part of a series documenting my experiences in China. 

Please follow previous entries by using the blog archive in the sidebar to the right. Or click here for the beginning.