Held in partnership with The Dairy Barn Arts Center, this special presentation includes both the SDA Members Exhibition and Students Exhibition. Selected works build on the theme of Interplay.
Interplay showcases the vibrant and dynamic nature of the fiber arts field. It is a delight to see these exceptional works displayed here, honoring the multifaceted processes of creation. While these diverse pieces offer fresh dialogue and interpretation, they remain interconnected, celebrating the interplay that bridges the past, present, and future of this medium. Through a wide range of possibilities—between the hand and the maker, the maker and the tool, the maker and the material, our materials and our cultural stories, and between our stories and our histories—we can shift and migrate meaning, deepening our understanding of who we are. Textiles, inherently fluid and malleable, provide new ways of thinking, fresh reflections, and reinterpretations, all while staying rooted in tradition. —Annet Couwenberg, Guest Juror
Due to her inimitable curiosity, Annet Couwenberg has pursued the ongoing conversations between traditional textile production and digital technologies throughout her art and teaching career. Couwenberg’s art, informed by her early work in the fashion industry, is diverse and includes sculptural forms and jacquard weavings as well as work with fish fossils and skeletons inspired by her study with a fish scientist as a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History. Couwenberg’s interdisciplinary work has demonstrated her capacity to create new realms. As a researcher of both traditional textiles and emerging techniques, she embraces a multi-directional knowledge exchange between new and established, creating art that visualizes methodologies to protect and preserve traditional practices while also expanding upon them. Born in The Netherlands, Couwenberg moved to the United States to receive MFA degrees at Syracuse University and Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has worked internationally, including in Korea, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and The Netherlands.
AWARD WINNERS
Members
Students
Lyndsi Schuesler, Green Fence (Bodily Autonomy)
Ji Young Kim, Curiosity of Garden #2
Taylor Hanigosky, Geology is Going Feral…
Ivy Anderson, An Unlikely Pair
Katie Chester, Daughter’s Sampler #2
Exer Thurston, Red
Sarah Black-Sadler, Should I say ‘singers of’ instead?
Carson Whitmore, House Quilt
Members Exhibition Online Gallery
Brigitte Amarger
BZH ID (abreviation for BREIZH IDENTITIES), 2017
Laser cut X Rays and reflective fabric, laces, threads. [51"x12"x79"]
The Brittany female headdress, generally white is a kind of identity card and expresses a social class and geographical community, Working on woman and memory, with an idea of continuity and rebirth,combining tradition and innovation,I wanted to update the headdresses,as a tribute to my ancestors.
Discarded fabric and x-rays, threads, cardboard. [50"x52"x1"]
This series made from a sample of discarded fabric, with precise floral motifs on a plain background and pictorial effect on the other side, questions the fragility of nature, its existence and memory as well as the second life of materials, giving them a new breath, with the objective of zero waste.
These wire pillows deal with both boundaries, and their absence through a constant reassessment of that which exists and the void that is left by the absence of existence. Through the use of weaving, line, and shadow, I explore the space that occurs between objects and their mere representation.
Unleashing the power of love, this fiber art installation create a statement against war, igniting hearts with hope. Mix media, fabric and hand embroidery.
Recycled fabrics on manipulated wire fencing. [17"x35"x15"]
This work was inspired by multiple objects, including symbolic angel wings, a heroine’s cape in a novel, a Victorian maze gone wrong. The references suggest multiple forms, but also create an object not quite fitting any of them.
The title points to the medieval Book of Hours. The contemplative medievalist understood the duality of the heavenly bodies [James Webb Telescope central image] with the rotations of the seasons [top panels] and the labors of human endeavors ["woven" bottom pattern] and the alchemy of the elements.
Sari silk, stone smalti, mirrors, wire. [120"x120"x1"]
Interference Wave is the interaction of two waves colliding. This work considers interconnectivity inherent to all things regarding social, environmental, and economic consequences of decisions made resulting from our perceived separateness from people and from nature.
This is a portrait of the artist Britt Ehringer. His body of work that spans from the ridiculous to the seemingly obscene, Ehringer's colorful dissection of a society enamored with the idea of more stands as a refreshing take on the chaos of urban life, consistently colliding between real life.
This is a portrait of Gavin Turk a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and was considered to be one of the Young British Artists. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of authenticity and identity, engaged with modernist and avant-garde debates surrounding the 'myth' of the artist and the 'authorship.
Hibiscus and Butterfly Weed, Macro and Micro, 2023
Silk. [72"x36"0"]
Scanning electron microscope images of dissected reproductive structures from Butterfly Weed and Hibiscus flowers are juxtaposed with macro photography of the same species. They have been colorized with samples of hues pulled from the macro photographs.
Screen printed silk mounted on damask with mixed media tree. [51"85"3"]
Side one of two, illustrating the 1821 journey of Swiss to the Red River region of western Canada via the Hudson's Bay. The story told chronologically on the hanging damask tablecloth can be seen from 2 sides. These migrants were pawns in the fur trade war hence Hudson's Bay blanket colours on side.
Fiber, paper, print, dye, art quilt, mixed media, sculptural. [9"x"28"14"]
Screenprinted scissors on used paper coffee filters (exterior) and screenprinted stone tracings on dyed & painted cotton fabric (interior). Theme: Rock, Paper, Scissors hide and reveal game of chance.
Palmira Chair is the result of an experimentation with textile and forms. The piece aims to create tension with the viewer, who is unsure of the chair’s functionality. The material softness invites the viewer to become a user, but the piece’s size and contours create uncertainty.
Using pattern as a conceptual metaphor and often disrupting the infinite plane that pattern presupposes, work from my Border Series highlights how borders, boundaries and thresholds operate. How do borders connect? How do borders divide?
Earth Spirit represents my critique of the fine art world with its obsession with non-functionality and extravagance. This extravagant one-off fiber cape critiques the fine art distinction through the interplay of the functional garment form and its aesthetic value as a wall art piece.
Rent Wound Tear, Mend Heal Repair is made of canvas, acrylic paint, hemp cord, string and lace, and hangs on the wall in slight relief. It employs processes of cutting, tearing, painting, stitching/sewing, wrapping, writing and knotting to explore themes of pain, loss, healing and redemption.
"Tashlich" is a Jewish ritual in which one casts stones into a body of water to cleanse themselves of the mistakes of the previous year. Here, I sewed a garment that allowed me to carry my sins as stones in its pockets, then cast myself. into the lake, emerging unweighted and new.
Repurposed fabrics, hand embroidery, found objects, metal [12"x16"x7"]
Why are the organs on the outside of the bird? The answer is simply complex: I expose their internal organs to starkly remind viewers that entire species of birds were once living, breathing beings. If we don’t question the ramifications of our actions all species will suffer.
This piece uses images from a video of a person reciting the 2nd Amendment. Without the context of sound the words are open to interpretation and become abstracted from their original content. I am interested in how this historical document is subject to change through time and retelling.
I always remember that a field of sea, like a pond, surrounded by mountains on all sides, with only a small outlet connecting it to the outside. The glass of water is serene but lively. It contains everything balanced with harmony. That’s the pond of water in my memory, a steadfast pool of water.
Felted wool, hand embroidered and stitched [29"x46"x1"]
Her Armory is a series of protective objects for women in an uncertain and troubling time. I have used reclaimed wool from sweaters, blankets and shawls to create a conceptual armor of resilience and strength in the face of a world turned on end.
An exploration of spirituality and privilege given shape through repetition and line work. I used this color combination to create a sense of energy and power.
A felted storytelling textile is performed alongside a telling of the story "Geology is going feral in the shape of my body." A video projected onto a large felted textile.
Digital photo collage, performance documentation [11"x17"x0"]
Document of on-going performance practice. an amalgamation of postures formed while fulling felt at the South River, a superfund site in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that has experienced a traumatic history of industrial pollution and environmental exploitation.
Our lives exist in the ordinary. Actions build into rhythms, liturgies. Some hold us well, others don’t, and some are only for a season. In acts of deep hope, we can sift these and craft liturgies that restore life.
This panel, part of the series Women’s Work, illustrates the juxtaposition of hard physical labor with the delicacy of the lace placemat. The black and white photo was scanned and colored on an iPad, then printed on cotton. The background is shibori dyed cotton and an upcycled lace placemat.
Installation consisting of 10-15 small pieces each made of mixed media including weaving, knitting, collage, sewing, and sculpture. The works were all made collaboratively through the mail between the artists as a conversation. The work represents an interplay between the artists lives in different states, as well as their current and past selves (who 20 years prior were classmates together in art school). The work responds to the complexities of being working professional women who are also mothers of daughters in today’s complex world. Geographically exhibiting in Ohio creates a triangle between their current cities. Given the nature of the work, conceptually and physically, the artists are prepared to install it in person. As such the dimensions are variable and can respond to a specific space.
paper receipts, threads, microfiber cloths, American flag [70"x48"x2"]
This work is composed of paper receipts and promotional stickers acquired from the Supreme store in New York City over the course of a year, hand-stitched onto a t-shirt using thread and Swiffer material. The extra-large American flag is stitched to the back of the t-shirt.
Smile Bouquet was built over a core of ritual objects created as sites to surrender and physically embody otherwise invisible hopes. Skin-like surfaces combine with densely worked textile construction processes to confuse distinctions between instinct and intent, surface and form, and being human within complex ecological diversity and interdependence.
These sculptures are part of a series about moving out of darkness into a less heavy space. This sculptural grouping has movement that speaks of a desire for growth. The heaviness of the black sculpture tries to keep the others from flying away, but it is unsuccessful.
Dye Sublimation and silkscreen prints on charmeuse, organza, and satin with handmade rope. Stuffed with hand-me-down clothing and textile trash. [120"x72"x36"]
Dye Sublimation and silk screen prints on charmeuse, organza, satin, with handmade rope. Stuffed with hand-me-down clothing and textile trash.
Personal photographs, cotton, rayon thread, cotton batting [54"x41"x1"]
Here I have combined images of rocks from the desert of the Southwest, some darkened by the soot of fires. Through the use of the computer, I have sliced and diced these images and then pieced them together to form my own creation, thus allowing a new way to connect with nature’s complexity.
This work is between stages of death and life, compression and expansion. It is formed, stuffed and bound. The forms burst forth like new life in spring and yet are bound like mummies. The tension between actions indicates the inextricable link between life and death and the cyclical nature of time.
The weaver is a multi-sensory experience. Through physical computing, the weaver's eye and weft-shuttle movements while weaving the one swatch were tracked and translated into a superimposed Audio Visual projection designed to feel a weaver’s embodied movements through other senses.
New/recycled/vintage fabrics/saris, thread, PLA (plant based filament). [100"x70"x1"]
Free motion embroidery, 3D printing, quilting, appliqué, piecing, sewing. This abstract work is intended to evoke a renaissance garden, time gone by, and the riotous chaos of nature devoid of humans.
New/recycled/vintage fabrics/saris, thread, PLA (plant based filament). [72"x13"x12"]
Free motion embroidery, 3D printing, quilting, appliqué, piecing, sewing. This abstract work is intended to evoke a renaissance garden, time gone by, and the riotous chaos of nature devoid of humans.
This piece is made from metal but drapes like fabric, challenging binary notions of hard and soft. The aluminum and copper wire, both durable and solid materials, lend the piece an ethereal quality. It is hanging from the ceiling here to show shadow but it can be a wall hanging.
War Belt for Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Part 1., 2024
Hand dyed thread, knotted and hand woven, on painted canvas. [20"x40"x1"]
This piece contains the first half of Tennyson's poem The Charge of The Light Brigade in morse code; each thread is a letter and the knots are the dots/dashes. Inspired by Incan quipus and paleolithic string skirts, it examines the experiences of Nightingale and Seacole during the Crimean War.
By identifying and exploiting the usually overlooked physical properties of modest, mass-produced goods, Rusek creates ethereal works that challenge our perceptual habits and preconceptions. This woven plastic textile was created from pre-consumer waste in the shadow of the Missoula landfill. The artist recontextualizes these materials as precious through aggregation and hand craft, allowing the work to become a meditation on the quiet silence of clear cut big timber lands.
This piece fuses the restrained domesticity of the traditional teapot with the depth, sparkle, and chaos of the woods. Embroidered leaves, colored threads, Angelina fibers, and foil confetti invite a lingering look into and through the surface of the teapot. A needle-felted owl rests in the glen.
For the poles, I acid-dyed wool roving and then wet-felted it around a PVC collapsible frame. The vertebrae are needle-felted around small aluminum armatures. The chain of the fence is acid-dyed wool yarn. The vertebrae were incorporated into the knit of the fence.
A celebration of Detectives Frank Pembleton (the late, great Andre Braugher) and Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor), partners on the TV series, "Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993-1999).
Mixed media (knitted metals, fish bones, porcelain ceramic) [5"x15"x13"]
Concentric knitted wire layers w/various cores represent accretions forming ancient features found on the abyssal ocean floor. If deep-sea nodules are mined as metal resources, disturbing the surrounding ecosystem, how many as-yet-undescribed biological treasures will be lost in the process?
Copperplate, zinc, polymer intaglio; monoprint; screenprint; woodcut; hand-dyed cotton, linen; vintage domestic linens; lace, ribbon; machine and hand-stitching. I combine print fragments, found objects, and fabric that has a history – vintage domestic linens, garment scraps and household textiles. I hand-dye the fabric and print layers of imagery with intaglio, relief, monoprint, and screenprint printmaking processes, combined with machine and hand-stitching. The images I explore (personal symbols from everyday life, references to the body, the natural world, and life cycles) evoke memory and history. The personal symbol of the braid serves as a reference to the body and as a metaphor for weaving together the parts of life. Braids have a long history as a presence in our lives. In some spiritual traditions, a braid is woven out of tall grasses and hung at the entrance to the temple. In other cultures, ritual objects are made of braided candles or braided leaves. Braids connect to the ordinary moments in daily living – we braid rugs, bread, hair. As a contemporary artist, I want to explore how we build connections with our memories and the primary patterns of the natural world.
Screenprint, relief, monoprint, cotton, kantha cloth, fringe, machine and hand-stitching. I combine print fragments, found objects, and fabric that has a history – vintage domestic linens, garment scraps and household textiles. I hand-dye the fabric and print layers of imagery with intaglio, relief, monoprint, and screenprint printmaking processes, combined with machine and hand-stitching. The images I explore (personal symbols from everyday life, references to the body, the natural world, and life cycles) evoke memory and history. The personal symbol of the braid serves as a reference to the body and as a metaphor for weaving together the parts of life. Braids have a long history as a presence in our lives. In some spiritual traditions, a braid is woven out of tall grasses and hung at the entrance to the temple. In other cultures, ritual objects are made of braided candles or braided leaves. Braids connect to the ordinary moments in daily living – we braid rugs, bread, hair. As a contemporary artist, I want to explore how we build connections with our memories and the primary patterns of the natural world.
The Images We Have And The Stories We Are Told, 1, 2024
Woven Jacquard, cotton and felted merino yarn [25"x40"x1"]
This is a woven Jacquard fabric inspired by the images we have, the stories we are told and retold. This particular image started with a daguerreotype of my great grandfather and his siblings in the 1890's. That image was overlaid with a pattern that mimics a warped textile pattern and represents the stories and memories. The woven design uses different weave structures in each pattern layer with materials that will have opposite reactions when washed a merino wool yarn and a cotton yarn. The fabric is washed on high heat after coming off the loom to shrink and pull in one of the layers and leaves the other layer to pucker in. These fabrics read as abstract from close up but the images come together when standing back.
Naturally dyed cotton and linen, wood, foam, cotton batting [32"x48"x2.5"]
This piece is a representation of changes in time and seasons and an act of meditating on these things. I have two interlocking rings upholstered with pieced cotton and linen dyed with natural dyes.
Verbum Weaving, crochet, embroidery [96"x20"x 20"]
Verbum was created by deconstructing multiple woven warps before reconstructing them using embroidery techniques with crochet embellishments. Thematically the piece was inspired by the idea of words that often get stuck in one's mouth and go unsaid.
Found objects, acrylic, elastic [5.25"x9.25"x8.5"]
Obscured within layers of knit: a hood ornament and a lighthouse paperweight. So disparate in their original functions, these forms fit perfectly together. Using the same colors in different orientations, their surfaces vibrate against each other emphasizing their opposite, yet unified nature.
Dispenser, paper towels, filet crochet patterns [8"x11"x4"]
Installed in a public bathroom, each paper towel removed from the dispenser contains a filet crochet pattern sharing a witty, humorous, or political message. Messages include “I run with scissors”, “All roads lead to the county fair”, or “Bathrooms at the center of a culture war.
My 3D-Printed Weighted Blanket is made from a neurodivergent perspective. The filaments’ textures, sounds of clacking beads, and bright colors allow the user to stim while sitting with the blanket. Its amateurish craft alludes to the subversion of conventional art while embracing incompleteness.
The title refers to the artists teeth in the jar that supports the woven sculpture. Teeth are the densest matter of our body and are believed to have suppressed emotional energy that sometimes needs to be released. The armature is concealed by thread, adorn with broken glass and mica, making this work a relic.
This piece is constructed from vinyl tessellations. In a response to fashion industry waste the piece is made from scrap material. By attaching tessellations like puzzle pieces, we constructed the pointed shoulders and the and the back to show the contrast of the material with the body.
This piece intricately weaves together themes of repetition, expansion, and contraction, mirroring the cyclical patterns found in nature. Drawing inspiration from the rich history of basket weaving, it delves into the symbolism of the vessel as a representation of embodiment and thought.
all day long / wearing a hat / that wasn't on my head, 2023
Wood, rope, paint [55"x20"x20"]
This particular piece intricately explores the generative process of my body in motion, repetitively organizing reclaimed materials around a central void. This method maps the movement of creation, while simultaneously tracing a hollow space evoking themes of both accumulation and loss.
This tapestry is a recognition of the state of our nation and the constant tragedy that we have become desensitized to. By mimicking an aged afghan one might find in their grandmother's home, the piece juxtaposes the harsh reality of our nation with gentle Americana imagery.
My project is to create visually stunning artworks that offer tactile and sensory experiences for viewers. I have focused on the concept of curiosity and used abstract shapes to represent its fluid and changeable nature. I have used weaving and papermaking techniques to create artworks.
My project is to create visually stunning artworks that offer tactile and sensory experiences for viewers. I have focused on the concept of curiosity and used flexible and abstract shapes to represent its fluid nature. I have used weaving and papermaking techniques to create artwork.
Digital photograph, print on fabric, thread embellished [16"x25"x1"]
This architectural image was digitally manipulated in Photoshop, colorization and special effects applied, printed on fabric and embellished with hand stitching. The Metropolitan was a razed building in 1960 of Minneapolis which initialized a bill for future preservation of historical buildings.
Weaving done on TC2 digital Jacquard loom. Warp is cotton, weft is hand-dyed, hand-spun wool. Reference image is me spinning the weft yarn on a drop spindle. Embroidered elements use the same wool yarn. (Note: This is a recent piece in process of being framed.)
Our tessellation project embodies the theme of “empowerment.” The garment itself exudes an armor-like quality, empowering the wearer, while the addition of a hood at the back enhances a sense of security and confidence.
He whispers seductive desires while screaming “look at me, see how I shine”. A sparkling, phantasmatic horizon containing the ghostly essence of a banal landscape transformed with technicolor and glitter to embody imagined worlds where a sun might no longer have to rise and set all on his own.
Constructed primarily of needle felted wool, this house is a reflection of my body. Color matched to my skin and adorned with personal tattoos and piercings, it acts as a disembodied but comforting form of myself. The slim opening at the roof invites viewers tentative and curious gaze.
One of a series exploring manipulation of surface: tufts of hair made from ribbon are added to final casting. The bundles of hair are made by individually unraveling sections of ribbon and binding the loose fibers in tape to create hair plugs. The connection points are intentionally left visible.
One of a series exploring manipulation of surface: long locks of hair made from unraveled ribbon applied to finished casting. The flexibility of one material is compared against the rigidity of the other.
Cotton, mohair, merino, silk, and linen yarns, brass wire [70"x78"x1"]
In Come Here, a handwoven meditation on the mystical Queer manicure, I explore the relationships between tension and release, seen and unseen, and sacred and profane.
This piece is composed of entirely faux-patchwork printed textiles. Using an appliqué technique, I've stitched these forms together by hand, the crazy quilt format. Interrogating the commercialization of hand labor and craft processes, this piece asks what it looks to dial up comfort.
This piece was woven on the TC2 Jacquard loom with four weft colors. Clothing ads frequently feature sunsets over water, and paradoxically, the clothing industry creates major pollution that affects the air and bodies of water. The stand references warp-weighted looms, an ancient weaving technology.
Block printing has a long history in textiles. Each block presents a heritage. Seeing each patch is a planet or a continent, color threads and organic embroidery connect each piece together as an extension of the print. They are all bounded and relative at the same time independently.
The Dairy Barn Arts Center’s O’Bleness Gallery
