Earlier this week, I spoke of two artists showing as part of the FiberPhiladelphia 2012 international biennial currently showing across various venues in the city. My trek through Olde City took me to the Wexler Gallery where Narrative Thread (a group exhibition) is currently installed.

New York-based artist Donna Rosenthal’s Days of Wine and Roses Quilt (120 x 120 inches, vintage romance novels, text, vintage jewelry, gel medium, acrylic spray, steel hangers and brackets, 2009) is a wall-hung installation of twelve pieces that have been painstakingly constructed, designed, beaded, lacquered and developed into miniature dresses that evoke at first glance, a brief fashion history of the “party dress”.  However, Rosenthal is using that notion of the “party dress” as a reflection upon cultural perceptions of femininity and self-ornamentation.  In addition, her chosen method of display for these items using brackets and petite hangers, further instigate how one could perceive women who’ve worn dresses with sweetheart necklines/high-skirt ruffles as “objects for display”, whether historically or currently. One cannot ignore the 2-D aspect of Rosenthal’s pieces with text from vintage romance novels running across the bodice and ruffled skirts. Text-as-ornamentation and metaphor is something that artists use profoundly, as witnessed in Lesley Dill’s large-scale fabric or dress installations. In her artist statement, Rosenthal says: “Text is almost always used to create cohesiveness between content and materials. The words can be provocative, humorous, ironic, and often, unsettling.”

Vietnam-born and now Seattle-based artist, Diem Chau, employs domestic mediums such as porcelain plates, cotton fabric and thread to sew narrative stories that leave the viewer wondering just exactly what each piece may mean, how it started, and where she’s taking us. You & I (35) (8.5″ x 12″ x 1″, porcelain plate, organza, cotton fabric, thread, 2011) is an exquisitely elegant piece that offers a snapshot view of two figures that we can tell are female and male, though we see no facial features or expressions. However, is Chau linking the elevation of the male figure standing on a book (or is it a small podium?) as an assessment of his “elevated status”? It’s these mysteries that engage us: of how her work “drifts into new territory by exploring the periphery of the narrative, moments forgotten and faded, or too brief to retain.”

Narrative Thread can be viewed through April 28, 2012 at the Wexler Gallery, located at 201 North 3rd Street in downtown Olde City, Philadelphia, PA, in conjunction with FiberPhiladelphia 2012.

(Images courtesy of Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia.)

Posted by:artdoesmatter

Patricia Sullivan is a metalsmith and studio artist – living in the suburbs of Philadelphia across the great Delaware River in Southern New Jersey for the past 15 years. She spent seven years prior, living in both New York City and the Hudson Valley, New York, studying at Parsons School of Design, moving onward to receive a second degree (post-graduate) in Fine Arts/Metals at SUNY New Paltz. A Philadelphia native, Patricia was exposed to the arts and music of this region since a young age, receiving her first Bachelor's degree at Temple University in Philadelphia before her sojourn to New York began. Patricia has exhibited her artwork nationally. Recently, Ms. Sullivan was one of only thirty-four artists worldwide to exhibit her work at the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design as part of being selected for Metalsmith magazine's prestigious annual "Exhibition in Print - Moved by Metal."

2 replies on “Fiber Philadelphia 2012 – Not Your Everyday “Thread” – Part II”

  1. The ‘You and I piece is intriguing! Maybe it’s about the educational opportunities availabe for men and not for women in the past? The style of clothing looks 1940’s, when women were still expected to make marriage and kids their ‘career’. Not that there is anything inherently bad about that, but some families paid to educate their sons and not their daughters because of this … my mother-in-law always wanted to be a teacher, but her parents wouldn’t allow her to go away and study, just as a case in point … =D

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    1. Ahhh, I see your point in all its validity. Book as symbol of educated male vs. the inability of the female to even seek out educational opportunities in her current time period. I like the way you think, stitchedupmama! Thanks again for such thought-provoking and insightful commentary.

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