InEvery Which Way, 35 Interact artists share recent explorations in fiber arts, from largescale weavings to hand-embroidered tapestries, felted sculptures to a collaborative quilt. Formally established in 2019with a dedicated space, Interact’s fibers program is relatively new– but as instructors Soph Munic and Melissa Nyberg note, it is robust, overflowing, and always expanding. In the last six years, the medium has become a catalyst for ambitious works and profound camaraderie, as well as a source of earnest, playful, messy, enthralled experimentation.
The fibers studio is a special place. The sound of sewing machines whirling, needles felting, and fabric being cut is interspersed with music, jokes, podcasts, and scheming. The collaborative ethos is contagious. One of the exhibition’s most ambitious pieces isI Dream Sweetly Under the Quilt,aseveralmonths-long project that includes contributions from 26 Interact artists and staff. Taking its name from a line of artist D.D.’s poem, the quilt provides a window into each contributor’s practice. Maizy Smith adds a dramatic painting of a skull and clouds, Jill Reedy an appliqué birdand felted sunflower,TeazuJuahthe patterned dowel from which the quilt hangs. So many others lent theirexpertise.
As with any process-based medium, fiber art makes certain demands, and having a network of fellow artists to consult is invaluable. Before one can quilt, one must thread a sewing machine, cooperate with a bobbin, wrangle yards of fabric. Some processes, like knitting and felting, require detailed, repetitive hand work and dexterity. Others, like weaving, can involve hours of planning and setup. For those who are new to the medium, it can be daunting. But as any fiber artist knows, with time, patience, and (sometimes) the invigoration of others, these prerequisites can become conduits. What is at first a challenge can leadto boundless, and often unexpected, possibilities. A novel worldopens up.
The beauty of Interact’sfibers community is that each artist conceives of that world and its capacities differently. Give any artist a set of rules, andthey’relikely to break them. Look at Bill Crane’s intrepid sewing machine drawings, andyou’llsee: that which is lineardoesn’talways go in a straight line.InEvery Which Way, all those zigs and zags and darts and dashes are the medium and message.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Kaia Burg, Annemarie Burns, Linda Carlson, Bill Crane, D.D., Koko Dehn, Michael Engebretson, Sophie Funk, Devra Goldstein, Ingrid Hansen, Kramer Hegenbarth, HML, Remus Huber, Oliver J., Sidney James, Teazu Juah, Wendy Johnson, Jill Reedy, Juan Mendez, Nadja Mohn, Soph Munic, Melissa Nyberg, Kandis O., Rosemary Perronteau, Lucy Picasso, Rachel Quast, Solana R., HarleyRay, Kimberly Rodgriguez-Lopez, Thomas Robinson, Briana S. A., Eric Sherarts, Maizy Smith, Steve T., Bonnie Thorne
