SDA 45th Anniversary: Spring 2023 SDJ, Out Now!
May 1, 2023
Surface Design Association is excited to announce our first Journal of the year: SDA 45th Anniversary, Spring 2023 edition of Surface Design Journal. The 45th Anniversary issue revisits the evolution of the Journal, to take a deep dive into the issues that mattered then, and still matter today. The issue begins with former editor Patricia Malarcher’s essay which underlines the necessity of critical writing in our field initiated by Charles Talley. Noted fiber scholar Jessica Hemmings, whose contributions span the tenures of Malarcher, McDade and Elizabeth Kozlowski, explores the broad range of themes in the 2010s which include labor, community and inclusivity. The issue closes with an excerpted conversation among board members of SDA, moderated by Karen Baker, which looks to the future of our field. The reprints which follow each essay highlight just a few of the important contributions to the journal over the years.
Here’s a preview of what you’ll discover:
“Following A Moving Edge: Critical Writing On Fiber” by Patricia Malarcher: “Betty Park’s words seem as true today as when they were spoken at a textile symposium in 1982 and later published in Surface Design Journal. ‘Edge’ is the operative word. To write intelligibly on contemporary fiber art, as with other genres, it is essential for one to know something about, or at least be curious enough to investigate what has led to a particular edge. One might be awed by the visual impact of an artwork, but without some context in which to place it, a writer can describe its outward appearance but lack the keys to unlock its meaning. Park’s essay was among the treasures I rediscovered while leafing through early issues of Surface Design Journal in preparation for this anniversary issue.”
“Flexible Patterning in African-American Quiltmaking” by Eli Leon (SDJ Fall 1989):
“Andean Textiles at The Bauhaus” by Virginia Gardner Troy (SDJ Winter 1996):
“The Importance of Being Fiber” by Twylene Moyer (SDJ Summer 2002):
“On Innovation” by Warren Seelig (SDJ Winter 2012):
“Textiles in Our Daily Lives” by Jessica Hemmings: “Perhaps far more purposeful for textile writing is the task of being able to understand the familiar and unfamiliar through the times we live in now. This requires the ongoing vigilance to remind a broader readership of the legacies contemporary textile practice has inherited. It also requires the discipline to discard tired metaphors without getting lost in semantic debates about nomenclature. While a daunting task, the answer to textile writing need no longer be ‘I wouldn’t know how.’”
“Body Gazing Through the Eye of a Needle” by Lois Martin (SDJ Summer 2013):
“Sewing and Seam Ripping Reflections on the Fabric of Society” by Sonja Dahl (SDJ Spring 2017):
“Looking To The Future: A Conversation with SDA Board Members” by Elizabeth Kozlowski: “My favorite sci-fi and fantasy authors, Robert Heinlein among them, return to a familiar lesson in the dystopian worlds they create: humans (or aliens) fail to learn from their past. Yet I also cherish these writers for creating characters with the ability to dream, to imagine a future among the stars. In an excerpted conversation among Surface Design Association (SDA) Board members, with Karen Baker as moderator, Fafnir Adamites, Michael Sylvan Robinson, Keidra Navaroli, Mi-Kyoung Lee and Yvonne Osei dare to dream—to imagine a future in our field based upon discovery, community, and care.”
Mi-Kyoung Lee, Yellow Forest, 2016. Twist ties and zip ties, 40 x 9 feet. Photo by the artist.
To buy a copy of SDA 45th Anniversary, go to the SDA Marketplace, or you can check out a free digital sample on our SDA Journal page.
