surface design journal

© Surface Design Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.

http://www.surfacedesign.org/journal

4 Surface Design Journal

w h o ’ s w h o

Surface Design Journal is a quarterly publication

of the Surface Design Association, a non-profit

educational organization.

SURFACE DESIGN ASSOCIATION

Our Vision: To inspire creativity, encourage innovation

and advocate for artistic excellence as the global

leader in textile-inspired art and design.

Our Mission: To promote awareness and appreciation of

textile-inspired art and design through

member-supported benefits, including publications,

exhibitions and conferences.

Our Objectives:

• To provide opportunities for learning,

collaboration and meaningful affiliations

• To mentor and support emerging artists,

designers, and students

• To inform members about the latest

developments and innovations in the field

• To recognize the accomplishments of our members

• To encourage critical dialogue about our field

• To inspire new directions in fiber and textiles

• To raise the visibility of textiles in the

contemporary art world

Surface Design Association

P.O. Box 20430 Albuquerque, NM [email protected]

Executive Director

Diane [email protected]

Assistant Executive Director

Susannah [email protected]

Advertising Manager

Karen [email protected]

Surface Design Journal Editor

Marci Rae [email protected]

SDA Digital Publications Editor

(Website, NewsBlog, eNews)

Leesa [email protected]

Surface Design Journal Art Director

Dale E. [email protected]

Web Site Manager

LM [email protected]

Printed in Hanover, Pennsylvania

The Sheridan Presswww.sheridan.com

Executive Board:

President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jane DunnewoldVice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeanne Raffer BeckSecretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ann GrahamTreasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Melinda LowyBoard:

Representative of Representatives . . . . . Astrid BennettMember . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Susan Taber AvilaMember . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Karen Hampton Member . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Deborah KrugerMember . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vivian MahlabMember . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeanette Thompson

President Emeritus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jason Pollen

SUBSCRIPTION / MEMBERSHIPThe Surface Design Association membership: $60 a year ($35 for student with ID). $30 ($20 student) of each member’s dues shall be for a year’s subscription to Surface Design Journal. Subscriptionsare available only to members. Outside USA: add $12 for Canada and $20 for all other countries. US funds only. Send Subscription/Membership correspondence to: Surface Design Association, P.O. Box 20430 Albuquerque, NM 87154.Visa/Mastercard accepted.

©2013 Surface Design Association, Inc. All rights reserved.Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Surface Design Journal (ISSN: 0197-4483) is published quarterly by the Surface Design Association, Inc., a non-profit educational organization. Publications Office: 2127 Vermont Street NE,Albuquerque, NM 87110. Periodicals Postage Paid at Albuquerque,NM, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Surface Design Journal:Subscriptions, P.O. Box 20430 Albuquerque, NM 87154.


[email protected]

www.surfacedesign.org

mailto:[email protected]



[email protected]




www.sheridon.com


1

e d i t o r i a l

COVER CREDIT: NATIVIDAD AMADOR Untitled Detail, traditional hook-tambour embroidery on fabric, 27.6" x 20.9", 2010.Drawing by ALEJANDRO SANTIAGO. Featured in the 2011 Museo Textil de Oaxaca (MTO) exhibition Pinthila Bordados de Natividad Amador en relación a otros artistas. Shown courtesy of MTO, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo: Jaime Ruíz Martínez. The complete piece is shown ABOVE.

A Taste of Latin America

Fall2013

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job isresearching material culture. The trove of textile arttreasures and traditions I discovered for the theme ofLatin American Fibers is as diverse as the region itself. Withdozens of countries spanning two continents, each storyin this issue offers a taste of fascinating work by contem-porary artists who either hale from or are inspired by thiscomplex part of the world.

A potent trend throughout Latin America is the transformation of traditional textile techniques intocontemporary art forms, beautifully illustrated by thestitched detail on our cover. Mexican artist NatividadAmador achieves this stunning surface design with hook-tambour embroidery commonly used to embellishwomen's blouses. The finished piece (shown here) isAmador's reinterpretation of a painting by her mentorAlejandro Santiago. A special exhibition of these fiberhomages was presented in 2011 at the Museo Textil deOaxaca, Mexico. Museum Director Héctor ManuelMeneses Lozano discusses their dynamic curatorial programming in a related Q&A article.

Betsabeé Romero's softening of macho car culture treads new ground through the streets of MexicoCity and abroad. In the highlands of Peru, the Center forTraditional Textiles of Cusco fosters global appreciation of ancient craft practices to preserve them and open newmarkets. Fiber workshops taught by American artists inGuatemala strive toward similar goals, with the help ofthe fair trade organization Mayan Hands.

The political and creative interactions of so manySpanish-speaking countries is discussed in the in-deptharticle “Latin American Textile Art...in process” by CostaRican artist/educator Paulina Ortiz, President of the Ibero-American Textile Network (Redtextilia). Joanne Matteraoffers a first-hand assessment of fiber-based art includedin the growing array of international art fairs that takeplace each December in Miami, Florida, home to one ofthe largest Latin American communities in the US.

I hope you enjoy this initial overview of LatinAmerican textile artists and their stories. We look forwardto featuring many more in future issues of the Journal!

Marci Rae [email protected]

C o r r e c t i o nSDJ Summer 2013, Vol. 37, No. 4

In the Exposure section on page 54, welisted the technique for Gary Schmitt’spiece Five Tools (2012) as “beedle” felting.You may have guessed, but the term is“needle” felting! We apologize for anyconfusion this may have caused and lookforward to seeing new works in woolfrom this talented artist.



www.surfacedesign.org/users/marci-mcdade


Velocity and MemoryB e t s a b e é R o m e r o

b y P a m e l a S c h e i n m a n

© Surface Design Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.© Surface Design Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.

LEFT: BETSABEÉ ROMERO Car/Ayate (at U.S.-Mexico border) Cloth-covered auto painted with roses169.3" x 82.7" x 55.1",1997. InSite Biennial, Tijuana, Mexico. Daros Collection, Switzerland.

ABOVE: BETSABEÉ ROMERO Law-abiding Mat/Petate justiciero Auto covered with woven reed matting, 2000. Absolut L.A.International Biennial Art Invitational, Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, California. Collection of the artist.

7Fall2013

In 1997, Betsabeé Romero covered a 1955Ford Crown Victoria with cloth and paint-ed it with flowers in a popular nineteenth-century style. According to the artist, “This isa textile,” like the famous mantle on whichthe Virgin of Guadalupe revealed her truepresence to the peasant Juan Diego onDecember 9, 1531, as miraculous proof toRoman Catholic Church officials. Ten thou-sand red roses filled the auto’s interior.

Car/Ayate was parked at the U.S.-Mexican border in Colonia Libertad,Tijuana—the birthplace of the Low Rider inthe 1950s. Like the Zoot Suit a decade earlier,the outrageous appearance of classic carsjacked up on enormous tires caught onamong Chicanos in California and forced aninvisible population into the national spot-light. Nearby this site, a thousand people aday passed through an illegal tunnel.

The piece won first prize in Insight’97, which included an exhibition at theMonterrey Museum of Art in Monterrey,Mexico. Thus, Romero established herself as amediator of popular culture, using vernacularobjects to bring the street into the museum(real cars along with photographs of theirinstallation), and vice versa. She belongs to ageneration of loners, which includes the con-ceptual artists Gabriel Orozco and FrancesAlys. They change our perception of com-mon-place things and situations, whileengaging in a critique of social and politicalrealities like consumer culture, racism, undoc-umented immigration, and the smug com-plicity of both governments.

From that first flamboyant gesture,Romero’s work emerged on the internationalart scene as a transgressive feminist pres-ence. Early support from Ramis BarquetGallery in Monterrey and New York promot-ed her image at art fairs and biennials. Therefollowed a whole series of decorated autosrescued from junkyards. One, tightly sewninto woven-reed sleeping mats (petates) likea pre-Hispanic burial or turtle in its shell, suggested the dangers faced by desperately

poor migrants bedding down in doorwaysand fields like packages in transit.

A Volkswagen Bug encased in cro-cheted baby blanket reminded Romero ofher own grandmother. At street level, a stripof pastel-colored yarn trailed from the carinto the Carrillo Gil Museum of Art in MexicoCity and up a ramp to the top floor, where aseated guard continued hooking loops.Romero makes the analogy to a giant umbili-cal cord tying alpha males to mamas whowon’t let go. A third piece, shown at the 2006Cairo biennial, inverted one fabric-coveredcar on top of another, like victims in plastercasts after a collision.

An everyday person may not be ableto tell you the style or period of the buildinghe or she lives in, but that same person prob-ably can tell you the make, model, and yearof any car. The mass media are saturated withcar crashes and car bombings that epitomizerandom violence today. Some images, forexample the convertible 1961 Lincoln stretchlimousine in which John F. Kennedy was shot,have become historic icons. Like Warhol,Romero exploits tabloid imagery to injectirony, new meaning, and popular appeal.

On a conceptual level, Romero’s dec-orated cars oppose speed and machoNASCAR culture. They are feminized andgiven stories, a history. They also are dressedup, like the paper doll clothes she invented in sets as a child. For velocity, she substitutesmemory. Memory, like the fabrication of textiles, is a slow accumulative process. Herown process is equally generative.

From cars, she went on to car parts(doors, windshields, rearview mirrors) andtires. An insatiable curiosity to categorize,research, and explore objects from a varietyof different facets stems from early training


Fall2013 9

in semiotics during undergraduate studies incommunication at the Iberoamerican Universityin Mexico City and a master’s degree in art histo-ry in Paris. Her work is saturated with referencesto ancient Mexican art, colonial motifs renderedby native craftsmen, and typical images that arecontemporary pop icons—an art movementdubbed neomexicanidad. She also plays directlywith the manipulation of materials.

Tires are symbols of mobility, the cos-mos, and the eternal female principle. Tires slicedlike an orange peel spiral to the ceiling. Instead ofwhite walls, Romero’s tires are ornamented likeprecious ceremonial objects. She uses chicle(think Chiclets), a substance once harvestedunder slave conditions from sapodilla trees intropical zones along the east coast of Mexico,that was fashioned into decorative objects andchewed to abate hunger. Tire treads are carvedinto cylinder seals, an ancient form of Aztec writ-ing and printing, some as big as tractor wheels.Inking and rolling her own designs, Romero hasprinted everything from fabric to gallery floorsand walls, and even city pavement.

Meetings at the Intersection/Encuentros

en el cruce (2011), shown last spring in the 8thInternational Fiber Biennial at Snyderman-WorksGalleries in Philadelphia, reveals Romero’s contin-uing embrace of Mexican textile traditions andher ability to position this work within diversecontexts of installation, fiber art, and printmak-ing. In the piece, two pure white cotton shawlsfrom Tenancingo (a rebozo-making center) arecrisscrossed at right angles with two tires placedvertically astride the center point. The textiles areprinted with positive and negative patterns inparallel stripes like the security wall runningbetween the two countries.

In Mexico, the all-purpose rebozo is usednot only as outer protection, but also to swaddlebabies and carry bundles (firewood, produce,etc.), freeing the hands. It is a vehicle for Romero,a symbol of mobility, of migration, of the eternalquest for a better life. At the same time, her rebo-zos connect to the female body, to nurturing, andspanning the earth. She associates warpsstretched in the act of weaving on a backstraploom with horizon lines and flat landscapes.

A whole range of domestic cloths—thickstriped twill for scrubbing (jerga), flannel for pol-

ABOVE: BETSABEÉ ROMERO Altar for Chavela Vargas and Carlos Fuentes Tissue paper hot-air balloons, silkscreened with floral motifs, hand-decorated sugar skulls, breads representing souls, carved forklift tire, 2012.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri. Collection of the artist.LEFT: BETSABEÉ ROMERO Caught in Flight/Atrapadas al vuelo Five tires, carved and printed on jerga,

variable dimensions, 2010. Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. Collection of the artist.

B E T S A B E É R O M E R O


BETSABEÉ ROMERO Birds’ Scream/Aves en un grito Three colors of cut tissue paper silkscreened with birds, PET frame, 41.7" diameter each, 2010. Installation view at Museum of San Ildelfonso, Mexico City, Mexico; featured in the artist's

retrospective exhibition Black Tears/Lágrimas Negras. Collection of the artist. Detail INSET.


ishing, dish towels and bath towels that absorbodors of cooking and the body—has been incor-porated into recent installations or communityworkshops associated with her exhibitions. Forexample, Romero’s use of jerga (made into thelong-sleeved pullover shirts called Baja Hoodiessold in America) is emblematic of how she trans-forms homely cloth into art. Cities That Go Away/Ciudades que se van (2004) consists of four yel-low-striped spans of jerga rising from carved tiresspaced apart on the floor. These converged at theceiling of the Havana Biennial, while local Cubanswere invited to bring a household cloth to beprinted as a souvenir.

A more elaborate variation, Caught inFlight/Atrapados en el vuelo (2012) features six 60-meter lengths of jerga printed with stylized birdssuspended from an atrium in the Kennedy Centerin Washington, D.C. The strips, gradated in red,orange, and yellow like the sun, give the impres-sion of the bars of a cage, the flight path ofmigrating birds, and the underside of a warpedloom. Romero believes that although immigrantscover lots of ground in their ambition for a better

life, they are likely to end up in the same low stra-ta. They carry their culture along with them.

Last November, volunteers from theMattie Rhodes Center, a social service organiza-tion, helped Romero create two altarpieces forthe annual Day of the Dead celebration at theNelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City,Missouri. One was dedicated to Mexican novelistand essayist Carlos Fuentes; the other, to the popular folk singer Chavela Vargas. Hand-paintedsugar skulls, bread “souls,” and other offeringswere arranged on three-tiered and suspendedtables. Silkscreened tissue paper fashioned intohot air balloons (globos de Cantoya) illuminatedthis sacred space. According to tradition, deadsouls return and feast on the essences of food,drink, flowers, candles, clothing, and smokesoffered on altars. Museum goers responded over-whelmingly to an invitation to attach messagesand objects to a series of ribbons hanging frommassive columns. Such public engagement ingeneral, and outreach to Latin community mem-bers, especially youth, has become an integralpart of Romero’s art.


BETSABEÉ ROMERO Remembered Ogives (circular arches)/Ojivas de la memoria Cut tissue paper, silkscreened, paint on wall, dimensions variable, 2010. Installation view at Art Museum of Sonora, Sonora, Hermosillo, Mexico;

featured in the exhibit Almost Touching the Sky/Al ras del cielo. TOP: Artist BETSABEÉ ROMERO.

11Fall2013

Another workshopwith papel picado (the craft ofcut tissue paper, usually madeinto tiny flags or strung as col-orful banners in the street) wastaught in conjunction withBlack Tears/Lágrimas negras,Romero’s 10-year retrospectiveof 83 pieces presented at theprestigious Ancient College ofSan Ildefonso in Mexico City in2010. The exhibit includedRemembered Ogives (circulararches)/Ojivas de la memoria(2010), a symphony of tissue-paper circles, riffing on color admixtures andshadow, real and painted on the wall, as well aspatterns of silkscreened sailing ships. Birds’Scream/Aves en un grito (2010) contrasts stunningbeauty with a disquieting note of alarm referredto in the title. Seven tissue-paper forms float par-allel to the ceiling. Silkscreened on each surfaceis a shower of leaves and petals, like drops ofblood, superimposed on a random pattern ofgold Aztecs in full regalia.

As a woman and aMexican, Betsabeé Romero isadamant that her artwork beaccessible through a multiplici-ty of textures and meanings.Her low-tech recycling ofmaterials and central themesof the border, migration, memory, religious faith, andconstant transformationimpact audiences fromGuatemala and Honduras toSlovenia and Germany.Refashioned cars, tires, andcloth printed with tracks or

traces of cities left behind hold universal appealand a strong relevance today.

Romero’s website is www.betsabeeromero.com. Her next solo exhibition will be at Juan Ruiz Gallery inMiami, Florida, (www.juanruizgaleria.com) November26, 2013–January 31, 2014 during the Miami Art Fairs.

—Pamela Scheinman is a photographer, writer, scholar and educator who divides her time betweenNew Jersey and Mexico City.

B E T S A B E É R O M E R O


www.juanruizgaleria.com

www.betsabeeromero.com

SILVIA PIZA-TANDLICHSan Rafael de Heredia, Costa RicaStill In Time (double-sided, bothshown) Microfiber, handmade batik,handmade beads, hand-dyed andcommercial yarns, cotton chains,hand appliqué, couching, batik,embroidery, crochet, hand quilting,69″ x 24″ with extension, 2011.This piece was included in the 14thInternational Triennial of TapestryŁodź 2013 in Poland.Galería Octágono www.galeriaoctagono.com.

CLAUDIA E. DOMINGUEZMyrtle Beach, South Carolina (Born in Mexico City, Mexico)Hysteria Amate paper backed with cotton, silk, cottonand gold threads, hand embroidery, 24″ x 36″, 2012. www.claudiaedominguez.com

EVELISE ANICET RÜTHSCHILLINGPorto Alegre, BrazilTextured Sunset Black cotton tulle, yarnresidue from industrialknitting manufacture(made in southern Brazil),textile collage processedin a pneumatic heatpress, size medium, 2013.Studio Contexturawww.contextura.art.br

E POSUREX



http://surfacedesign.org/users/silvia-piza-tandlich

www.galeriaoctagono.com

http://surfacedesign.org/users/evelise-ruthschilling

http://surfacedesign.org/users/claudia-dominguez

LAURA FERNÁNDEZSan Juan, Puerto Rico

Todos Juntos Installation view,discharged textiles, paint and

applications, embroidery, 65" x 45", 2012.

MÁRCIA BERGMANN AND BIA LETTIÉRE (Designers)Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Turury (from the Tree of Life Rug Collection) Detail,100% continuous filament of polyamide, hand-tuft-

ing, dimensions variable, 2009. Manufatured byAvanti Carpets & Rugs, Brazil.www.marciabergmann.com

Artists represented on the “Exposure” pages are members of the Surface Design Association (SDA).This issue features the work of members who have populated their SDA profile pages with imagesand information about themselves and their work. This free and easy online service adds to theSDA Image Library and Member Directory; both are valuable research tools for curators, writers, collectors, and artists from all over the world. To learn more, log into your member account and follow the prompts, or visit the gallery at www.surfacedesign.org.

Fall2013 63

GABRIELA NIRINOBuenos Aires, ArgentinaSpinner II Linen, cotton, wool, handwoven on com-puterized jacquard loom, 60.5" x 42.5", 2012. Thispiece is included in Fiberart International 2013,reviewed on page 54.


http://surfacedesign.org/users/marcia-bergmann

http://surfacedesign.org/users/laura-fernandez

Fiberart International 2013: Exhibition of Contemporary Fiber ArtPittsburgh Center for the ArtsThe Society for Contemporary Craft

Fiberart International 2013, a triennial exhibi-tion organized by the Fiberarts Guild ofPittsburgh, opened at the Pittsburgh Center forthe Arts and the Society for Contemporary Craft(April 19–August 18, 2013) with simultaneousevening receptions and an International FiberartForum the following day. Jurors culled 79 piecesby 63 artists from 10 countries, which wereselected from 1,259 proposals by 525 artists from36 countries. Fifty-two artists are first-time inclu-sions in this prestigious show. This year’s selec-tion was made by jurors Kai Chan, fiber artistfrom Toronto; Paulina Ortiz, textile artist fromCosta Rica; and Joyce J. Scott, an internationallyactive Baltimore-based artist.

Over the course of its 21 presentations,

Fiberart International has matured. The exhibitionwas established to celebrate innovative workrooted in traditional fiber materials, processes,and history and interdisciplinary arts that exploretheir boundaries. These tenets are still examinedwith great enthusiasm but perhaps with less ofan evangelical zeal. Over the years, the exhibit—and other fiber survey shows like it—has suc-ceeded in raising the profile of fiber arts. Shouldwe continue to advance the field in form-specificsurvey exhibitions, or is it time to start thinkingabout different formats?

Surveys like Fiberart International can beproblematic and challenging. As collections ofindividual artists’ works, some shows holdtogether better than others. Many artists includ-ed in the 2013 exhibit were represented by twoworks, which helped its cohesion. Several excep-tional pieces stood out.

Embroidery, the au courant hip and “hap-pening” technique, was hard to miss in thisoverview. Whether machine embroidered or byhand, many pieces pushed fancy stitching to theedge of innovative experimentation. While fabricis hard to manipulate into exacting figurative art,embroidery lends itself more readily to drawingand painting. The best examples not only imitatethese traditional representative media, but also

54

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

i nr eview

STEPHEN SIDELINGER (US) Big Yellow Embroidery on cotton, 25” x 20”, 2011. Detail TOP LEFT.

SANDY SHELENBERGER (US) Textures 3 Encaustic, Japanese rice paper oncradled boards, encaustic medium, 32” x 24” x 1.5”, 2012.

Reviewed by Petra Fallaux

Surface Design Journal


remain true to what makes fiber an art form with a character andlanguage all its own.

A work that intends to blur the line between painting andembroidery is Elodie Sabardeil’s Palpatations. The vulnerability of thenaked figure and loose ends of thread dance in unison, beautifullyexpressing form and figuration in one idea.

Stephen Sidelinger’s Big Yellow, an embroidered reinterpre-tation of one of his existing paintings, won the award for excellencein needlework. By staying true to the strong mark-making and lay-ered qualities of his expressive original, the stitching seems entirelyfresh in its voice: gestural and decisive.

Sandy Shelenburger embroidered a square cloth with foursquares, leaving an open diagonal cross pattern. Her encaustic Textures1 and Textures 3 each use 12 repetitive black and white images of thissquare cloth organized in a quilt-like patchwork. With no actual stitch-es being present, the pieces raise awareness of how our experiencesare most often mediated—real tactile experience versus its mere rep-resentation. Following Magritte’s 1928 painting of a pipe accompaniedby the text ceci n’est pas une pipe (this is not a pipe), Shelenburgercould have added the text “this is not embroidery.”

Liz Aston also manipulates photographs of her own textilework in Exploding Lace View. She pushes perceptions of her lace asshe digitizes, scales up, and abstracts the original in hand-cut,starched, and dyed linen, taking it out of a traditional size and con-text and into the realm of contemporary art. A similar transformationoccurs when Carol Milne kiln-casts her knitted wax socks with leadcrystal glass and lost-wax casting technique to reveal socks that arefine art objects first and transformed textiles second.

These inspired and compelling works actively probe theboundaries of textile art and challenge preconceived notions. As inany survey, these works are juxtaposed with more straightforwardfiber pieces: weaving, felting, knitting, crocheting, knotting, beading,

Fall2013

To order, please visit: www.AnnJohnston.net or phone 800.247.6553

Quilter’s Book of Design

Expanded Second Edition

$29.95

Color By Accident: Low-water Immersion Dyeing

Color By Design:Paint And Print With Dye

Also by Ann Johnston:

NEW from Ann Johnston:

A complete dye workshop on DVD!

Color by Accident: Exploring Low-Water Immersion Dyeing is an extension of the techniques Ann introduced in her ground-breaking book, Color by Accident: Low-Water Immersion Dyeing. With over 250 samples of fabric and 17 live demonstrations, Ann teaches how and when to vary her basic method, including how to

mix colors without exact recipes create value blends several ways create many different textures explore dyeing on your own

CAROL MILNE (US) Fire & Brimstone Knitted wax (stockinette stitch), kiln-cast lead crystal (glass),lost wax casting technique, 7” x 5” x 12” each, 2011.


lace, and paper. While Fiberart International 2013felt complete and well-rounded, many piecesremain in the comfort zone of traditional materi-ality and techniques. Audiences may contemplateand admire their technical prowess, but the realexcitement comes from the art that explodes ourexpectations.

In conjunction with Fiberart International2013, social media’s darling event of the summerwas Knit the Bridge. The “yarn-bombing” ofPittsburgh’s Andy Warhol/7th Street Bridgebasked in glorious blankets made through acces-sible crafts (August 10-September 6, 2013). Thecolorful textiles were appealing to many con-stituents from the passerby to the participatingfolks from all walks of life. The Herculean effort toorganize the project (conceived by FiberartsGuild of Pittsburgh members and led by artistAmanda Gross) took over a year of preparation,gathering much momentum and support alongthe way. It was clearly a huge success when mea-sured as a community-led and based art project,

claiming to be the largest yarn-bombing to date.Aesthetically, it was also a sight to

behold. The dressing of the bridge was cleverlythought out: the 580 blanket-size panels left lotsof room for participants’ individual contributions.Black sleeves that encased the railings and pillarsunified and anchored the diversity. Machine knitsdressed the towers. There were so many fantasticvantage points: from your car or bus on thebridge or from underneath in a boat or kayak.Observing people interact on the bridge wasanother treat. They very animatedly pointed, dis-cussed and investigated. There is no doubt thatthe Summer of 2013 will be forever known as theSummer of Knit the Bridge.

Fiberart International 2013 will travel to the San JoseMuseum of Quilts & Textiles in San Jose, California(November 6, 2013–January 19, 2014), www.sjquiltmuseum.org; and the Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B.Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina(January 19–April 24, 2014), www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org; www.fiberartinternational.org; www.knitthebridge.wordpress.com.

—Dutch native Petra Fallaux is a writer, curator, quiltmaker, and creative director at Springboard Design,based in Pittsburgh, PA. www.petrafallaux.com

Surface Design Journal56

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

i nr eview

(continued from page 55)

Knit the Bridge Andy Warhol/7th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania “yarn-bombed” by dozens of participants with handknit and crocheted panels (August 10 - September 6, 2013). Photo: John Polyak. Detail TOP LEFT.


www.sjquiltmuseum.org

www.sjquiltmuseum.org

www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org

www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org

www.fiberartinternational.org

www.knitthebridge.wordpress.com


i np r in t

Indigo: The Color that Changed the WorldBy Catherine LegrandThames & Hudson, London and New York, 2012ISBN: 978-0-500-57660-7

Long before Levi Strauss stitched up hisfirst pair of jeans in the 19th century, bluedye was among the world’s most covetedcommodities. While other sources of the color,including woad, became well known in the West,India is believed to have first developed the pro-cesses that yield a deep vibrant blue from theindigofera plant. Since its green leaves contain nohint of the dye that for centuries played a historicrole in international commerce, its development isclose to a miracle wrought by human ingenuity.

Gradually, it found its way around theworld and was adapted to serve the specificneeds of particular cultures. Although the majori-ty of blue dyes today are synthetic colors pro-duced by industry, there are pockets on the plan-et where people still produce indigo as in pastages.

Catherine Legrand, proprietor of an eth-nic clothing store in Paris, circled the globe insearch of people working with indigo in tradition-al ways and who remain conversant with the loreand rituals surrounding its production. Sherecords that journey in a visually seductive vol-ume, Indigo: The Color That Changed the World. Herhigh-resolution photographs that make cloth sing

should convince the most indifferent browserthat the color known as “blue gold” merits what-ever it took to obtain it. Among the examples thereader encounters are the richly varied blues ofworn fabric in Japanese boro, the contrast of bril-liant blue and white in resist-dyed African fabrics,the lacquer-like shine of blue-black clothing wornby the Miao people in China, blues enriched byconstellations of tiny patterns in India, and dark-est blue as a ground for brilliant embroidery inGuatemala. Diverse images of people at workconvey the enormous range of conditions inwhich indigo dyeing takes place, from womendyeing at home with clay pots scaled for individu-al use to men working communally in vats thatoccupy prominent places in their villages.

The book’s 300 pages in a horizontal for-mat could strain muscles accustomed to e-read-ers. Still, Lagrand correctly describes her approachas modest, not exhaustive. She provides a briefintroduction to indigo’s history and the complexsequence of processes that extract the dye fromthe plant, leaving other technical aspects forchapters on particular geographical areas. Thereare references to dyeing processes, such as ikatand shibori, but no detailed information on thoseor on the looms that are mentioned in passing.However, there is a full explanation of calendar-ing, a method of beating fabric to make it shinyand water-resistant, that is used by the Miao.

Occasionally supplementing the copiousphotographs are painted images of garments, butthese seem incidental. The author’s voice comesthrough most authoritatively in her reports onpersonal encounters. I was disappointed that, inthe section on Horiyuki Shindo, his rectangulardyeing tub is depicted but not one of his contem-porary indigo sculptures. That omission, I assume,was to keep the focus on traditional artifacts.

This is not a book to read from cover tocover but to take in a piece at a time. Movingthrough the chapters, I kept thinking of a NationalGeographic special in which a subject is coveredby selective anecdotes that send one elsewherefor the whole story. For that, one can start withthe extensive bibliography on the final pages. Anindex would have been helpful. I wanted to cross-reference information in different chapters, butthat meant flipping back and forth through thebook. I tended to lose my way and surrender toblueness. www.thamesandhudson.com

—Patricia Malarcher, a studio artist and writer, wasformerly Editor of the Surface Design Journal.

Reviewed by Patricia Malarcher


www.thamesandhudson.com/Indigo/9780500516607

www.thamesandhudson.com/Indigo/9780500516607

HistoryFounded in 1977, the Surface Design Association is an interna-

tional not-for-profit organization with an office in Sebastopol,

California. SDA seeks to raise the level of excellence in textile

surface design by inspiring creativity and encouraging inno-

vation through all its undertakings. Our current membership

of nearly 4000 national and international members includes

independent artists, designers, educators, curators and gallery

directors, scientists, industrial technicians, entrepreneurs, and

students.

Publications and Website

Surface Design Journal, the Association’s quarterly magazine,

offers in-depth articles on subjects of interest to contempo-

rary textile artists, designers, and other professionals in the

field. Each issue is designed around a theme relevant to sur-

face design and offers perceptive commentary unequaled by

any other peer publication. Accompanying each article are

full-color reproductions of work by leading-edge artists.

The monthly eNews spotlights time-sensitive information,

including exhibition opportunities and initiatives.

The online SDA NewsBlog features news of SDA member

activities, reports on events relevant to surface design, and

information on professional resources. The blog is located on

the SDA website (www.surfacedesign.org).

The website includes ongoing updates on SDA conferences; a

gallery featuring members’ artwork; an international calendar

of textile-related events; and a bulletin board listing opportu-

nities for exhibitions, grants and employment.

Conferences

The Surface Design Association sponsors major biennial inter-

national conferences as well as smaller regional and interna-

tional conferences. Programs feature distinguished speakers

offering perspectives on surface design, workshops and

demonstrations covering a wide range of contemporary and

historical techniques, exhibitions, fashion shows, vendor

expos, and other events. Conferences have been held at differ-

ent US and international locations.

Member Benefits

• Four issues of Surface Design Journal

• Ongoing SDA NewsBlog updates & monthly eNews

• National, international and regional conferences

• Networking opportunities

• Opportunity to submit images of work to the “Exposure”

section of the Journal

• Image Library for promotion of members’ artwork

• SDA Instructors Registry

• Promotion and representation of members’ work and

professional activities via the Journal, NewsBlog and website

• Free 30-word non-commercial classified ad

MEMBERSHIP/SUBSCRIPTION RATES

1 year $60 $_______

2years $110 $_______

3 years $155 $_______

Student 1 year (valid current identification required) $35 $_______

Library, organization, and school 1 year $100 $_______

Mailing Rates (per year):

USA no fee

Canada &Mexico $12 x no. of yrs. subscribing $_______

All Others $20 x no. of yrs. subscribing $_______

Contributions Above Membership

Supporting ($50-199) $_______

Sponsor/Professional ($200-499) $_______

Business/Benefactor ($500-999) $_______

Fellow ($1000-5000) $_______

$30 of dues ($20 for students) shall be for a one year subscriptionto the Surface Design Journal. Subscriptions are only available to Members.

TOTAL ENCLOSED (US Funds Only) $_______

NAME: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

COMPANY/ORGANIZATION: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

STREET: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CITY: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STATE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -DIGIT ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

TEL: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

EMAIL: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

� VISA � MASTERCARD

ACCOUNT NUMBER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .EXPIRATION DATE . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SIGNATURE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Billing address if different than mailing address:

CARD HOLDER NAME: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

STREET: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CITY: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . STATE: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -DIGIT ZIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Membership Order Form

DETACH—SEND/MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: SURFACE DESIGN ASSOCIATIONPO Box 360 Sebastopol CA 95473-0360Tel: 707.829.3110 Fax: 707.829.3285www.surfacedesign.org/membership

Surface Design Association

How did you hear about SDA?� Membership Brochure � Advertisement � Friend/Colleague

� Workshop � Conference � Retail Outlet � Other


surface design journal - fall 2013 - sample issue

Documents

design journal editormarci

members dues

publications office

visibility of textiles

quarterly publication

e d i t o r

comexecutive board