Ashley
Meadows
Collections
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Abstract: Being raised in a family of collectors meant that I was surrounded by collections. A collection, at its most basic level, is a select group of objects purposefully acquired within some sort of categorical framework. It is a seemingly irrational phenomenon that is driven by the peculiar pleasures and eccentricities of the individual. A collection becomes inherently descriptive of an individual because they hand select the objects it contains. Collections are not found as a whole; they are carefully cultivated piece by piece. In this way become unique and become part of the collector’s biography. I am interested in investigating collections as biography and as a type of portrait. By drawing from my own experience with collecting, I am recreating my family’s collections in stitch.
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Artist Statement: As human beings, we surround ourselves with objects. Most
are haphazardly come by, but some are purposely sought after. Collections
often arise from the possession of once functional items, especially in
the collection of antiques. However, once these items enter a collection
their function is drastically altered to become a piece in the whole of
the collection. Most people are satisfied to have one can opener. So what
drives a person to have one hundred can openers? I believe the urge to
collect lies within its process- the hunt for the perfect items, but also
the joy and gratification derived from owning a collection. Collection
is seemingly irrational and often driven by the peculiar pleasures and
eccentricities particular to an individual. I am interested in investigating
objects or collections as biography and recreating them as a type of portrait.
By drawing from my own experience with collecting, I am recreating my
family’s collections through stitch. In this process, I am simultaneously
investigating familial biography as well as my own. The family collections
become my own as my process of recreating mimics the action of collecting. The collections that fill the homes of my family range from
egg scales, sock darners, old medicine bottles, and eggbeaters. A collection,
at its most basic level, is a select group of objects purposefully acquired
within some sort of categorical framework. This is predominately an independent
activity in so far as the collector determines what to collect, establishes
the framework of what he or she is interested in, chooses the individual
objects, and decides how to display their collection. Collections are
had for personal enjoyment as well as cultural prestige and “is
stimulated by greed, love, by patriotism, by loneliness, even by madness-
though madness comes later as the collection takes over the owner.” Collections, I believe, are reflective of their owners and
the objects they collect become part of their biography. Collections are
inherently descriptive of an individual because the collector hand selects
the objects it contains. S.M. Pierce when describing how collections are
motivated says, “The ultimate in self-definition through having
is the devoted accumulation of a collection.” Collections can be
perceived as extensions of the self. However, it is not just the act of
collecting that is telling, but what one chooses. The collections I choose
to portray in Buttons, Spoons, Hangers, and Egg Scales are family collections that are mostly antique, de-functionalized domestic
items. They are collections within the home that revolve around the home.
A house becomes a home through the personal items of its inhabitants.
We surround ourselves with many objects, but objects within a collection
are the most purposefully acquired, displayed, and beloved. Collections are not found nor purchased as whole; they are
carefully cultivated piece by piece. In this way they become unique. A
collection is rarely complete because they have the potential to expand
endlessly. My work is constructed in this additive nature. I do not create
a work in a single motion, but by adding small part by small part until
it becomes a whole. Buttons began with stitching a single button
and then more and more buttons. The further I delved into the process
of stitching buttons, more variety appeared within the growing collection. Spoons was created in a similar manner; I had found a way to
represent tarnished silver in stitch and had to find a way to apply it
to each spoon, one by one. Buttons and Spoons are based
on real collections but do not represent specific items from those collections
so they forced me to tap into the decision-making or selective part of
collecting, deciding and determining qualities to exemplify or not. Hangers and Egg Scales do represent specific items, so I
took less creative liberty with them, which lessened the selective process
of collection, but emphasized the additive process of collecting. The
collection was created slowly, piece by piece. The phenomenon of collection
overlaps with sewing. Sewing, by its nature, involves connecting pieces
to make a whole. A single stitch does not make an image and a single object
does make a collection. It is in the slow, purposeful accumulation of
stitch and objects that makes my work a collection. Both a personal interest and an autobiographical source
fuel my interest in textiles. I have been working with fabrics and surrounded
by their aesthetic implementation since childhood. My mother introduced
me to sewing as her mother and grandmother introduced sewing to her. Sewing
was a skill I was able to cultivate because I always had those resources
available. Fabric is connected to my subject matter because of its role
with the home. It is specifically related to Buttons and Hangers,
but not out of the realm of Spoons and Egg Scales. My
process is reflective of the nature of sewing. The stitch is a powerful
binding tool that holds the work together and is my primary manner of
mark making. The needle is very much akin to my pen and the thread is
the lasting residue of action of the needle. Sewing is literally how I
construct my work, but also influences my creative process. It is not
a quick or gestural process, but one that evolves slowly over time, piece
by piece. The needle slowly brings forth a whole comprised of individual
stitches, which, in turn, brings forth individual objects. Fabric is simultaneously concealing and revealing. While
the function of fabric is to conceal, its social significance is revealing.
Choices in fabric can indicate social and political orientation including
wealth, gender and cultural background. Fabric can also locate a certain
geographic area or time period and act as a link to family heritage. The
weaving and interlocking of fibers in the creation of cloth invokes metaphors
of connectedness or unity. Artist, Miriam Schapiro says, “For me,
the fabric of my art and the fabric of my life equate one another.”
This sentiment rings strongly for me as I use the material autobiographically.
The material I use in my work is reflective of the fabrics used in the
homes I grew up in. I chose fabrics with a warm tone or a tone that reflects
the objects I am stitching. For me, natural, beige or neutral tones recall
the age of the objects in the collections and the general feel of my home. Miriam Schapiro was one of the forerunners in the use of
fabrics in fine art. Her use of fabric in her paintings or femmages paved
the way for other artists to use the material in their work without scorn.
Femmages are collaged works using fabric, paint, and other domestic textile
items, such as a found handkerchief or apron. Thalia Gouma-Peterson describes
femmage as work that “in both form and content, expressed the creativity
of women within the confines of traditional domesticity.” Schapiro
uses iconic domestic and feminine imagery and decorative pattern regularly
in her work of the 1970s. Anonymous Was A Woman, from 1977, is
a series of etching made from anonymously crafted handkerchiefs and doilies.
These become a collection of anonymous handicraft that memorializes the
art of women past and traditional woman’s art. This relates to Buttons as it is memorializing a family collection that has been sold off in bits
and no longer exists save a few. The act of recreating a collection by
stitching memorializes it through the labor it takes to do so. Schapiro
is re-presenting the objects, while I am reinterpreting and translating
the objects using my vocabulary of stitch. I am also memorializing the
objects through the act of selection and presenting in a new context and
new material. I am drawn to Schapiro’s work for its emphasis on
materiality and its exaltation of objects from everyday life, especially
those located in the domestic sphere. Sheila Pepe is a contemporary artist who uses textiles and
craft-based materials autobiographically. She creates sculptures and installations
by crocheting unconventional materials that move from the domestic sphere
to the architectural. Her materials become unconventional because of the
scale in which she presents them. Josephine is one her most autobiographical
works. It is titled after her mother who taught her how to crochet and
the piece is crocheted itself . Lap is another example of her
autobiographical use of materials and choosing a scale that is reflective
of the installation space. It is constructed of shoelaces and industrial
rubber bands. The choice of shoelaces is homage to her grandfather who
ran a shoe repair shop as a recent immigrant to the United States. Pepe
considers the installation space when choosing her materials and chose
industrial rubber bands to be in dialogue with the space of display. I
consider space when choosing my materials, but it is more of a consideration
of the space they derive from rather than the space they are presented.
The space I consider is the interior of the home. Pepe expands the scale
of her materials and content to fit the presentation space, while I scale
my pieces to the actual size of the object and to a scale that is appropriate
to the source of my content, the domestic space. Lisa Kokin is an artist who incorporates the same critical
issues in her work as I do in mine: autobiography, sewing, and collection.
She uses sewing autobiographically as reflective of her experience growing
up in her parent’s upholstery shop. Issues of memory and family
resonate through much of her work. Her work that is of most interest to
me are the sewn photographs and the button collages. The sewn photograph
works are comprised of anonymous found photographs acquired at flea markets
and antique shops. The button works are collages of found buttons and
other small domestic items stitched together to make an image. Examples
of the above can be seen in Moment and Trophy. Kokin and I have a lot of overlap in the layers of our work,
but they are combined in a different manner. Kokin must find, select,
and obtain all of her materials much like a collector. I also approach
acquiring materials like that of a collector. Often I will find materials
without a project in mind, which results in a collection of materials
to choose from a piece arrises. Kokin and I both feel that the stitch
plays a major role in our work. Kokin uses the stitch to bind her objects,
where the objects are her way of mark making. I am using the stitch as
my primary mark maker to represent objects. Mary Hull Webster, of Art
Week, feels that “there is… a sinking down into quiet
discoveries in small repetitive movement with scissors, an awl, and a
needle” and that her finished pieces have an “insistent materiality.”
The former describes how I like to relate to my process and the latter
describes a quality I desire in my finished works. The issues of sewing and collecting are critically related in my work and are interwoven to manifest the ideas inherent in both. The additive and process oriented nature of each are critical to how I perceive and create the work. I am recreating family collections in stitching and fabrics as an exercise in discovering biography, both familial and my own. Collections are inherently reflective of their owners and by representing family collection the works become representative of my family. However, the difference that occurs in the transcription of the collections is that I become the collector. I am making decisions about what to represent in which categorical framework, how to display them, and deciding what each item will look like. Therefore, I become the collector and my work becomes my collection. This body of work then becomes the collection that contains an extension of myself.
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