City of splinters

Last weekend, I went to the incredible Makerfaire in San Mateo, just south of San Francisco. There was so much to see at this annual mega-celebration of DIY activity. The thousands of visitors were there to encounter inflated giant asparagus, tesla coil DJs, EL wire remote controlled sharks, felted moustaches, oversize puppets....the list goes on! For now, I'll focus on very impressive project: Scott Weaver's toothpick art.

Scott's work was on display as part of the Exploratorium's stand. As you can see from the images below, he is a master sculptor in the medium of toothpicks. He's been developing his skills in the craft since age 8!

I'm sure you textile designers out there will appreciate the time that goes into building up something cohesive (and even beautiful!) from a pile of loose fibers.

Enjoy watching the video here:

Scott Weaver's Rolling through the Bay from The Tinkering Studio on Vimeo.

Photos below are by Luigi Anzivino of the Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio, where Scott's piece Rolling Through the Bay is on display.

One Of A Kind

The One of a Kind Show and Sale is a kind of multi-city pop-up Christmas market featuring handmade artisan products. I visited their space in New York last week, and discovered inspiring work from artists like John Christopher Borrero (above, 'The Cicada Queen'). It was located in midtown, at 34th and 5th avenue, in the heart of the fast-paced shopping district.

One of a Kind was in NYC for its second year - its other locations are Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver, where it has been an annual event for many many years.

'Flying Machine', another intriguing piece of found object art by John Borrero

They do a good job of promoting the hands behind the handcrafting. On their show websites, they feature extensive profiles of the designers, and some are specially featured with interviews and studio photographs. Apart from benefiting the designers, this kind of promotion also drums up support for the craft industry among the shopping public.

If you're in one if the cities, I recommend either shopping or showing at the One of a Kind.

http://www.oneofakindshowny.com/
http://www.johnborrero.com/

Jean Shin: Common Threads

Jean Shin, a rising star of the American art scene, has been elevating the status of textiles. Her sculptures are now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum - the most prestigious contemporary art museum in Washington DC. The show is called "Common Threads" and will be up until 26 July.

At first glance, Shin appears to be a confoundingly eclectic artist. Any one of her pieces looks completely different from the next. In her portfolio, you see a banner made out of umbrellas, a really vast house of cards, neckties laced to urban fences - it's not immediately clear what they have to do with one another.

In fact, she doesn't appear to place any limits on the kind of material she uses. Instead, the work is linked by a common approach. She collects objects that are usually discarded - lots of them, piles of them - and considers their context. What were they used for? By whom? What city was all of this cast-off material "produced" by? In the end, the resulting installation is a response to all of those factors, which explains the aesthetic variety.

"Worn Soles" Leather shoe soles and heels, 2001

"TEXTile" Recycled keyboard caps, 2006

"Penumbra" Broken Umbrellas and thread, 2003

Jean taught drawing at the pre-college art summer course I went to at Pratt in Brooklyn. Back then, she identified herself as a sculptor. That was 11 years ago, and I've seen her bold work evolve from framed strands of hair, to walls colored with donated clothing (my shirt and underwear were there, in a museum!), to giant waves of broken records.

She works more and more in the mode of a textile designer, by collecting raw material, finding how it joins together, and making surfaces that sometimes are formed into large shapes. A few years ago, she was the artist in residence at the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia. Does she still categorise her work as sculpture? Can she call it fiber arts? I wonder if things would have been different if she were called a textile artist from the start. Would she would have achieved the attention her work deserves?

Link: Jean Shin "Common Threads" at Smithsonian American Art Museum

A Shifting Context for Fiber Art?

More than two months after visiting the 5th International Fiber Art Biennial, I'm finally blogging about it. This has been a case of waiting for the perfect opportunity.

(photo left) A student works in the Fiber Arts Department studio in Beijing's TsingHua University, where Professor Lin Lecheng has opened a dialog with the international Fiber Arts community.

The Lunar Year has just initiated its new cycle, and along with it, we can expect many changes of fortune, luck, and energy. We should be able to observe a marked difference between events of the previous cycle (Year of the Rat) and this one. For many, the surfacing of a vast economic fallout in the last few months of the Rat Year seemed to emphasize that animal's sneaky influence. (As a pet rat enthusiast, I normally object to the characterisation of rats as destructive. They actually love to decipher and create complex strucutre.) In any case, the rat is out and the ox is in. Now is the time to talk about one of the two highlights of last year: The Fiber Art Biennial.

Li Jing and Yingda Li in front of Li Jing's Vast - cotton thread, metal buckle

Wang Dong Chrysanthemum in Water - resin, chinese brushes

Part of the piece I exhibited, made with the Magnetic Embroidery technique.


Duan Jianhua, Rotation - cotton thread, plastic pipe



Asa Wretman, Untitled - wool



Song Danxin, Zhang Yong, Chinese Characters Impression - bamboo, paper, fine thread

The other highlight of the Rat Year 2008 was, of course, seeing the headline "The Day America Became Cool Again" on the 5th November issue of The Times.

Tetsuo Fujimoto at the Daiwa Foundation

Work '99 Image courtesy of Wallpaper.com

Tetsuo Fujimoto's "Machine Drawings" were started as a reaction to his frustration with the weaving process. He originally trained and exhibited as a weaver, but sought out a different medium - one which allows for "immediate creative response."

It's still possible to see a weaver's approach in Fujimoto's intricate work. He builds up abstract images out of layers of "embroidery" (zig-zag stitch). Although the threads dash across the surface with a palpable spontaneity, the construction method is thoroughly elaborate. His understanding of the sewing machine's zig-zag function is obviously great, and probably equals any weaver's knowledge of a loom.
I enjoyed his use of color. Many of the pieces are black/white when first viewed, but actually contain underlying streaks of color that can only be seen up close. This structure is reminiscent of natural phenomena such as bright blue sky under passing cloud covers, yellow moss under melting snow packs, or veins of pink crystals in grey granite rocks.

Fujimoto writes, "I have the feeling that I can find repose in a sheet of cloth and the feeling that I can absorb the system of the universe within myself." By being so engaged in each piece, he has found a new visual and structural language under the needle of a sewing machine. I'm not alone in being fascinated by this world - another visitor to the gallery was obviously in the process of making a purchase. Many of the works had already been sold.

Tetsuo Fujimoto "Machine Drawings"
12 November - 17 December 2008 Daiwa Foundation Japan House