A World Class Show
SlipCover is in excellent company
Hello all,
SlipCover is comfortably installed in the Excellence in Fibers VIII onsite exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, until January 7th, 2024!
I went to San Jose to attend the opening, and was floored by the power of the show as a whole. Please go see it if you are able.
Demetri Broxton is a curator at the Museum of African Diaspora and a fiber artist himself. He curated an exhibit that showcases not only the breathtaking variety within fiber art, but the depth and intricacy of the human experience. I was moved by the narratives woven (sometimes literally) through the show, by and about women and BIPOC artists. The massive spectre of Heavy, by Andi Arnovitz, illustrates the immensity of life lost in the Syrian civil war; Terrain by Sugandha Gupta, renders the intimacy of losing her sight due to albinism. I haven’t stopped thinking about how fiber is the medium strong enough to unify these myriad, complicated issues, able to soothe, swaddle, and challenge in equal turn.
One highlight of the show was meeting Theda Sandiford, the artist who created the piece Blackity Black Blanket. In the January edition of Fiber Art Now, our pieces were printed in conversation with each other and sit facing each other in the gallery in San Jose. With over 20,000 zip ties and a reclaimed fishing net, this piece illustrates the countless microagressions she faces as a Black woman, and the materiality of oppression. She is currently working on an entire apartment of zip-tie blankets, due to open at the Brooklyn Museum next year.
It is a huge honor to be one of the seventeen artists featured in this exhibit. If you’d like to see more of the show, you can watch Theda’s recap on instagram, my photo and video recaps on instagram, and see the unabridged Excellence in Fibers VIII show in the January Issue of Fiber Art Now magazine. If you’re near Brattleboro, I’ll lend you my copy.
I had an amazing time at the opening! My husband, Ian, and I had been on a spectacular vacation in San Francisco the week prior, my sister Mim drove down from Oakland, and my parents came all the way from Vermont to be there. I got to wear this funky sheer overdress I made super last minute (you can watch the struggle unfold here and here), and finally got to meet the museum staff I’ve been emailing for months. As you know, it was a huge ordeal to get SlipCover to San Jose, and I relished every moment of seeing her installed. Thank you again to all who donated, networked, and cheered us on through that ordeal, your support still makes me cry.
Now I’m back in Brattleboro, brimming with ideas after seeing so much art at SFMoMA, the DeYoung Museum, and SJMQT.
Good thing, too, because suddenly, it’s that time of year again.
(Truly competitive gift-givers know what I’m talking about.)
If you want a one-of-a-kind, lovingly customized, unbelievably special gift, handcrafted and delivered by December 15th, you are reading the right newsletter.
Give a baby a plushie snake! Give your best friend a boob cushion! Give your therapist an abstract painting! Give yourself a massive wall hanging that says how you feel!
“We get it, Ruth. But how?”
Just fill out this form, and I’ll be in touch.
If you don’t want to wait, there are large and small works ready in my shop.
Thank you again for supporting my work. All I want for the holidays is for my art to be shared. Please forward this newsletter to those who might enjoy it.
If you need me or some firewood, I’ll be dealing with the massive tree that fell in our yard last week.
Cheers,
Ruth