SDA show 5 -- other strange materials

Yes, it's sort of a fiber show, but expect all kinds of other materials, fiber-like or not, to show up.

Ellen Schiffman, Star (details below)

Here's a piece constructed of Q-tips, making an academic arrangement of specimens such as you might find in the natural history museum, presented in an important wooden case.  Each one is different; they could be sea anemones, crystals or the seedheads of dandelions ready to float away.  

I like this piece for its austere palette and formal symmetry, the variety of effects she has achieved by cutting and assembling the Q-tips in different ways.  And of course against the austerity and formality, there's humor.

Xia Gao, Breaths (detail below)

Austere palette and everyday materials again, obsessively transformed into an elegant presentation: start with stretched canvas, add a bazillion plain old metal pins.  The artist statement talks about "double-sided images," which makes me wonder whether the pictures might have been displayed away from the wall to see the pointed ends as well as the heads.

Just the slightest touch of red enlivens the left-hand piece of the triptych.

Next post:  let's see some stitching!!!

The SDA show, "Transgressing Traditions," will be at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn NY, through August 21.