Deep undertones run throughout the vibrant colors and smiling faces featured in “The Interpretations in Fiber” exhibition at Lindenwood University.
The exhibition is being held in the Boyle Family Gallery in the J. Scheidegger Center. The show will run until February 21, and is open to the public noon-9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Five collections make up the exhibition. Using fabric and similar materials, professional artists Catherine Armburst, Mary Margaret Sandbothe, Eric Carlson, Jo Stealey and Laura Strand used personal inspirations to engage viewers.
Lindenwood Professor Nicole Ottwell said she arranged the exhibition for students in textiles and weaving classes.
Photo by Kyle Rainey
“I was really trying to get things that would inspire them or show them the diversity of fiber art as a medium,” Ottwell said. “[It’s] different when students can come in and actually see finished objects, rather than slides of them.”
Armburst, one of the artist in the exhibition, used the creation of her collection as a way of dealing with the death of her husband of 22 years, according to her artist statement. Titled “Visible Mending,” her display combines her own work with her husband’s to create a thought provoking display featuring the rhythm of life.
Colorful canvases hung across from Armburst’s collection and show same sex couples advertising popular consumer products. Ottwell said the artist, Sandbothe, is challenging mainstream media with inspirationsfrom the LGBT community.
Another wall of the gallery is dedicated in part to Carlson, and his handkerchiefs that have stitched recreations of deadly viruses across them. The inspiration for these pieces came from early germ warfare, in which people would give infected blankets and handkerchiefs to their enemies, according to Carlson’s artists statement. Some of his works feature viruses like H1N1 and Ebola.
From cut up T-shirts to flax skin baskets, this diverse gallery shows some of the many forms fiber art can take.
