Use the following links to explore Keynote information

• Sheila Pepe: Surface as Cultural Agent
• Josh Faught: The Cosmetic Affect of Darkness
• Jane Lackey: The Substance of Marks
• Aram Han Sifunetes: Towards the Decolonization of Fiber Art

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Sheila Pepe

Surface as Cultural Agent
August 3rd, 7 pm

The textile surface conveys more than its making. It can reveal possibilities of both utility and meaning and through its construction works as a powerful cultural agent. This talk will explore the agency of textiles using historical models, like that of the silk road, to highlight the promises and pitfalls of contemporary work in textile design and “object hood.”

Sheila Pepe is best known for her large-scale, ephemeral installations and sculpture made from domestic and industrial materials. Pepe is also known as an educator who likes to trespass the boundaries of fixed disciplines in art and design. She is now a Core Critic in the Painting + Printmaking Department at Yale University. During the conference, she will also lead a session with students.

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Josh Faught

The Cosmetic Affect of Darkness
August 4th, Time TBD

Josh Faught’s studio practice has triangulated spaces between personal history, social/political history, and the history of textiles. He operates from a premise, suggesting that if political rhetoric is, at its core, a desire to communicate, the ability to speak through textiles allows us to embrace a personal/political continuum that is at once, fragmentary, experiential, and physical.

 

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Jane Lackey

The Substance of Marks
August 4th, 7 pm

Over a number of years, visual artist Jane Lackey has used multiple processes, surfaces and mark making systems to summon invisible aspects of identity and connection. Her lecture will focus on the conceptual and material substance of marks as both individual and collective signifiers. Her long-time affinity with the medium of fiber is inspired with scientific curiosity, the chemistry of physical sensation, reductive, micro pathways of mapping and durational spatial experience. She will discuss how recent works trace illusive spatial information and communication first as mapped schema on paper and then emerge as enveloping installations that align place with audience interaction. An ACC Fiber Fellow, Lackey’s presentation is sponsored in partnership with the American Crafts Council.

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Aram Han Sifuentes

Towards the Decolonization of Fiber Art
August 6th, Time TBD
Aram Han Sifuentes considers the act of protest and how it speaks through the end of the needle in the hands of immigrant laborers in and outside the garment industry. She will discuss her most recent projects: Official Unofficial Voting Station: Voting for All Who Legally Can’t (2016-2017) and Protest Banner Lending Library (2017) along with US Citizenship Test Sampler (2012-present) which address themes of immigrant labor, immigration policy, citizenship and skill sharing and exchange.

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