The Ardent Thread

Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Friday, 10:00am – 4:00pm, Saturday, 12:00pm – 4:00pm

Virtual Opening Reception: Thursday, July 16, 6:30 – 8:00pm  VIEW OPENING RECEPTION

Virtual Artist Talks on Zoom:

• Wednesday July 29, 6:00 – 7:30pm featuring Cynthia Lockhart, Char Norman, Jessica Pinsky and Ron Shelton VIEW PART I
• Wednesday, August 26, 6:00 – 7:30pm featuring Phyllis Brody, Rebecca Cross, Myrya Johnson, Aimee Lee VIEW PART II

Virtual Program: The Legacy of African American Textile Art with Cynthia Lockhart: Saturday, August 15, from 1:00 – 2:30pm VIEW PROGRAM

*To visit the Archives and view the exhibition, please review our safety and social distancing policy or call 216-721-9020 for additional information*

As close to us as the clothes to our bodies, textiles hold an intimate place in our lives. Though historically dismissed for its utility, it is precisely this closeness which makes fiber a powerful tool to explore our individual and collective experiences. This Summer, the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve is pleased to host The Ardent Thread, a textile invitational curated by Tony Williams which shares both the personal stories and passionate work of nine regional fiber artists.

Featuring Phyllis Brody, Rebecca Cross, Aimee Lee, Cynthia Lockhart, Myrya Johnson, Char Norman, Jessica Pinsky, Ron Shelton, and Anne Weissman, The Ardent Thread showcases weaving, quilting, embroidery, papermaking, assemblage, and innovative mixed media work. The exhibition also includes artist Oral Histories, unique interactive audio recordings which trace their journeys with the fiber arts.

Curator and fiber artist Tony Williams explains, “We have all learned the craft of fiber for different reasons. Some of us learn because it is something passed down from generation to generation. Some of us learn out of necessity. Some of us learn for its beauty and skill and want to express our voice in these techniques. The group of artists exhibiting in The Ardent Thread are all true masters. They express their love of their craft… creating extraordinary art as they intertwine their chosen thread into a life of its own.”

Though the artists vary widely in process and style, each uses tradition as a springboard to investigate heritage, the boundaries of materials, and their relationship to the world. A powerful theme explored in the show is the deep connection of textiles to African American heritage. Artist Cynthia Lockhart describes, “Perhaps more than any other art form, textiles reflect the pulse of the African American Culture. Symbolism of the cloth has been one of our connections to our African roots.” Lockhart’s own work in the exhibition employs pulsing colors and organic shapes to “simulate the vivaciousness of her African ancestry” and address vital parts of the African American experience, including the slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Myrya Johnson also channels the rich legacy of African American textiles as a source of inspiration and a means to access her creative center. She relates, “Color inspires me, especially the tribal colors of the African cultures and their connection with Mother Earth. I find that these colors bring me to a place of freedom and rawness of self-expression. It is the place that I need to be when I create. When I am in that mental space, I allow the Spirit that comes to me to guide me… I have learned to listen.” Johnson’s deeply personal garments and dolls were previously shown in seenUNseen, AAWR’s landmark 2019 exhibition of African American art.

Aimee Lee draws from her Korean ancestry and hanji, the traditional process of Korean papermaking, to craft elegant and inventive new forms. “I excavate my heritage to reveal cultures and stories we rarely see or read,” Lee explains, “through hand papermaking I look for connections between humans and the wider world.” On view in The Ardent Thread, is a series of Lee’s ducks, which are created by weaving and twisting paper into hollow bodies. In Korea, carved mandarin ducks are symbols of fidelity and fertility, given as gifts to the bride and groom. “I translate these artifacts into contemporary versions that remind us where we have been while pointing to where we are going…. I encourage them to talk, fly and share their stories.”

Phyllis Brody’s work for The Ardent Thread serves both as a reflection on her family’s history as well as on the long and problematic relationship of women and the textile industry. “Textile arts have been a lifelong interest stimulated by having two grandfathers who were tailors and a grandmother who was a seamstress in a shirtwaist factory in the Garment District of NYC.” On display in the exhibition is Brody’s Crazy Quilt, a work comprised of parts of bodices, collars, hems, table runners, napkins, doilies and other obsolete goods. “I am awed by the craft, intricacy and beauty of their handwork and saddened to see it discarded.”

In addition to heritage, several artists in The Ardent Thread use fiber to reflect on human’s connections to and effects on the environment. For Char Norman, threads themselves serve as a metaphor of interconnectivity and the weaving process, a way of binding back together the nature we have broken. On display are several of Norman’s Egret Series, inspired by her encounter with the remains of a great white egret in South Carolina. “There was not much left except a smattering of feathers strewn about the trail… my hiking companion remarked that I should gather a few feathers for a hat.” The resulting sculptures use woven forms as stand-ins for the bird’s bodies and resemble the sweeping Victorian hats which bore their feathers. This fashion craze nearly drove the egrets to extinction. If not for the efforts of Harriet Lawrence Hemenway and Minna Hall, two environmentally conscious women who launched a boycott of the feathers, “we may not know the beauty of these birds today.”

Multi-media artist Rebecca Cross employs fiber to warn of humanity’s profound impact on the natural world. Using the Japanese process of Shibori, Cross fashions highly colored silk sculptures which mimic the botanical specimens found in natural history museums. “At once a mourning and a celebration of the biological diversity that we need, and is rapidly disappearing, these objects suggest a speculative future where plant species of our era…only exist as artifacts.” Cross carefully constructs clear mounts for these forms and etches them with the work’s own cast shadows and hand-written taxonomies of Ohio’s endangered plants. The “additional, linear tracings of these ‘lost plants,’ ultimately cast shadows themselves… Together, these objects become a remembrance, and express the fugitive and fragile nature of living things.”

Ron Shelton transformed his classical textile training into a call to arms over our deadly addiction to plastic. “My passion for textile arts began at the early age of six. I was fascinated by the elaborately crafted starched doilies that my ‘nanny’ created. There was such an innate connection that she began teaching me how to crochet and knit…. Later, as curator/publisher of the online arts magazine/non-profit organization, High Art Fridays (HAF), I began to observe artists using plastic, unsustainable material, in their art. From Ghana to Serbia, El Salvador to Korea, they were making a statement…this devasting medium is wreaking havoc on our communities.” The Ardent Thread features several of Shelton’s plastic hats and garments, including translucent jackets designed expressly for the show.

Another connection between the exhibiting artists, is their joy of experimenting with materials. Anne Weissman constructs elaborate fabric collages with “improvised embroidery stitches and a surprising range of textiles, including those she has hand printed.” Using her needle as a “drawing tool, the thread literally drawing together the elements of these complex, yet intimate, pieces.” With a background in fine arts, art history and world textiles, Weissman’s diverse studio work includes printmaking on paper and fabric, collage, and contemporary mixed-media paper arts.

Jessica Pinsky uses her vast knowledge of the fiber arts to push the boundaries of conventional materials and processes. “With lots of experimentation,” Pinsky describes, “I discovered I could make cloth behave very differently with the same basic materials.” Beyond technique, her weavings serve as metaphors for the human condition. “[We are all] made of the same material, but can behave very differently… Halves of [my] weavings are barely held together by tangled masses of fiber, demonstrating the many divides within our society… In contrast, the yarns that appear similar are side by side but actually very different in material and value… Our communities are segregated based on these differences. How is balance achieved? We need cloth to survive. It is our warmth and our shelter. Maybe this unifier can not only demonstrate our differences but mend them as well.”

The Ardent Thread will be celebrated with a virtual artist’s reception on Zoom, Thursday, July 16^th, 6:30 – 8:00pm. The event features a video tour of the exhibition, a live curator’s talk by Tony Williams, and brief artist statements followed by audience Q &A. The Ardent Thread Artist Talks will also be held via Zoom on Wednesday July 29, 6 – 7:30pm and Wednesday, August 26, 6 – 7:30pm.
REGISTER FOR PART I ARTIST TALKS HERE

On Saturday, August 15, from 1 – 2:30pm the Archives is pleased to host The Legacy of African American Textile Art with Cynthia Lockhart. This free, online virtual program will be presented on the Zoom online meeting platform. Lockhart is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cincinnati and has taught courses in Fiber Art & Fashion, the Art of Jewelry & Leather Accessory Design, and Master of Design Professional Development. As an exhibiting artist in The Ardent Thread, Lockhart reflects, “Perhaps more than any other art form, textiles reflect the pulse of the African American Culture. Symbolism of the cloth has been one of our connections to our African roots. The fiber artwork and quilts in this presentation celebrate the resilient and creative spirit of our African Ancestors.”

Artists highlighted in the presentation reflect inspiration from Slavery through Emancipation, Reconstruction, Civil Rights, Black Life Matters, “Hands Up”, and present-day protests in honor of Mr. George Floyd.

Artist Oral Histories with Curator Tony Williams

Listen to The Ardent Thread artists describe their journey with the fiber arts… in their own word. Conceived, recorded and edited by curator Tony Williams.

Phyllis Brody

Rebeccia Cross

Myrya Johnson

Aimee Lee

Cynthia Lockhart

Char Norman

Jessica Pinsky

Ron Shelton

Anne Weissman