Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
( upbeat electronic music )
>> Depth of surface is exciting for us because it is 16
Northern California artists who are working in our context
and this allows us to invite them into the University.
>> It’s also been great in terms of
looking for work that fits this idea of pattern
and surface design that leaves the surface, that becomes an object.
That took us all over the Bay Area looking for artists who
are working in this language of textiles.
>> There seems to be a real interest right now in the Bay Area
about fiber art... about artists working
within the fiber art realm, but working outside of it too,
so it’s not necessarily traditional fiber art...
( upbeat electronic music )
This is a transcription of a quote... Walter Benjamin is talking about
storytelling, and how because there’s no more community gathering around
things like weaving and spinning. That the actual act of storytelling
is disappearing.
>> In this piece, it’s actually
all about the birth of my daughter, my sort of exploring the curiosity of
what our relationship is going to be.
It’s really nice to see the show in its entirety. The way ideas and thoughts
and thematic courses are bouncing around the room is really excellent.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> This is a piece I made called "Manufactured Artifact."
And the idea is to explore the possibility of creating something
new that looks old.
This is reflective yarn, so it's the same material that is used on road sides
In this case, it’s a yarn that is woven on industrial loom.
>> The way I made this painting is
I would cut and fold my New York Times newspapers into patterns
that I wanted. Then I would transfer those patterns onto a
paint skin, and so basically you can unpin the painting and take it off.
I think Mark Johnson and Sharon Bliss are doing a fantastic thing
with this gallery and students. I think they’re some of the best shows.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> I’m part of the exhibition design class here
in the Fine Arts Department,
which essentially runs the Fine Arts Gallery on campus.
I’d say for this piece, Mung Lar Lam wanted some spots more dramatically lit
than others, as opposed to the piece behind me, Ali Nashke-Messing
who wanted very even lighting. So it varied from artist to artist.
>> I think the only thing I knew about lighting before
was wattages and temperatures, but
there’s a lot to making a 3-D piece pop out and giving it light.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> Basically, the tears, even though they’re filled
with the alphabet, they make no words, and the piece itself is very aware of
the loss to my audiences. They have no idea what the tears say, and that's
one of the first questions that I’m asked: "What do they say?"
And the fact is that they say nothing. And a lot of times I feel like,
having been here so long as an immigrant, I’ve lost both languages.
I can’t really communicate with either. And I guess my language
is the visual language that I use.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> My work is "741976 Interstellar", and basically
those numbers are a date. It’s July Fourth, 1976. We used to have
these Fourth of July parades, and so I wanted to create a piece that
was really about childhood for me. Looking up in the sun, and
looking at the grass, and stuff like that.
>> This project is called "Vision of New Fields."
I became really fascinated with early childhood learning toys.
It’s kind of great to be back here at [SF] State for this project,
because I recently got my MFA here.
It really changed the way I work, in that I became really interested
in this process of creating pattern.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> These two are part of a series of hand-woven
hand-dyed tweeds that are based on Scottish estate tweeds. This piece is
"Interior Decorator," and this one is "Hairdresser." All of the fabrics that
I make have language coded into them in a very specific way.
I experience synesthesia, which causes
me to see a color associated with every letter of the alphabet.
What I do in this work is really address the relationship between
text and textiles.
The idea of language and words are intricately related to weaving.
>> In general, my artwork looks a lot at dichotomies.
So on a formal level I’m juxtaposing the steel and the organza...
and in a more conceptual way, I’m thinking about systems and networks.
>> Each knot relates to a number.
It does start from a documentation about my body, and the idea
around how do you take a very subjective, personal experience
and then translate it into this objectified...and it’s supposed to be
laid out like a scientific specimen.
( upbeat electronic music )
>> It gives you a whole perspective...
just the process, working in a gallery just everything that it takes
to get here. You see just how rewarding it is on everyone’s behalf.