(re)threads: Opens THIS Friday!

(r e ) t h r e a d s

Lily Booth

Elizabeth Emery

Joetta Maue

Elizabeth Switzer

April 6 - April 30, 2012

Opening Reception: Friday, April 6 from 5:30-7:30.

Curator's Talk @ 5:45

Houghton Gallery at 171 Cedar Arts in Corning, NY.

For the first time in years I am a curator yet again. I've been working on this project for a number of years and am thrilled to finally get to see it realized. The artists represented are some of my personal favorites that I am proud to call my friends. 

From my curatorial statement:

"The first and second wave feminist art movement left many artists with a fear of domestic or “feminine” materials, use of such things rendered ones work “essentialist” and therefore, irrelevant.

Working now in the post-MTV turned DIY generation, Lily Booth, Joetta Maue and Elizabeth Switzer make use of found fabrics and embroidery, while Elizabeth Emery uses found fabrics, which are then cast and bound. These artists enter into dialog with previous generations by making use of similar materials and, in the case of Booth, Switzer and Maue, using materials previously worked by another woman’s hands.

Histories of individual needlework and the more general history of women’s craft are the underlying theme of this exhibition. The materials used for these works were found – something already created for a different purpose and discarded, before being re-purposed.

These activities; sewing, embroidering, crocheting, and knitting, once meant to keep a woman’s hands busy are now used to tell intimate stories, chosen over the overtly political collective messages of previous generations. These entirely inefficient practices show the presence of the artist’s hand- a response to an overly slick, glossy, and mass-produced culture."

The gallery is located at 171 Cedar St., Corning.

For more information, call 607-936-4647.

Hope to see you there!