RE: Assembly, on view at Nationale through October 18, 2020
As part of Portland Textile Month, Nationale weaves together a powerful assemblage of local, national, and international multi-media artists. RE: Assembly, on view through October 18th, reads like a love letter to light and fiber works; it is “adapted from a former function… pliable in form…. towards a new idea.” With thoughts of what it means to re-construct, re-contextualize, and re-assess objects and thoughts and materials, the works presented are unique to themselves and to the context of the gallery. Exhibiting together for the first time, these four artists present a strong front as makers currently working to push the boundaries of form and intuition.
L: Lane Walkup, Boot and Heel, both 2020, steel, fabric, and spray paint, approx. 7 (h) x 9 x 3 inches
R: Michelle Yi Martin, Room Insider, 2020, cotton, wool, and acrylic light gels, 8.5 x 3 feet
To experience the full dreamy poetics of this show, arrive early in the morning. It’s October now so consider the way in which the sun rises later and lower than in the height of summer. Around 11am the dewy light of a new day is coming through at just the right angle to shine on and through Michelle Yi Martin’s Room Insider. The reflection cast on the back wall captures Martin’s intricate mosaic, catching the exact tints off of the bits of acrylic light gels she’s laced with cotton and wool. Connecting light to movement, Martin reiterates what it means for textiles to be fluid and shifting.
Francesca Capone, Material Memory II, 2019, mixed media waste scrap fabrics and lavender, 44 x 38 inches
On the opposite wall, writer and weaver Francesca Capone trades in her traditional and laboriously hand-woven works to create her newest series, Material Memory I-IV, which push towards a zero-waste practice. These works are laden with memory and sentiment, considering how personal scrap can, in this context, create new narratives. These patchwork pieces reject precision and tradition to make room for new modes of interaction. A personal favorite aspect are the hefty lavender patches sewn into Material Memory II that can be touched, scratched and sniffed for an added element of surprise.
Sofía Clausse, Paper Tapestry #2, 2020, acrylic on paper and mixed media, 58 x 38 inches
With similar values of repetition and gridded gesture to Capone and Martin, artist Sofia Clausse’s works on paper are however nothing but exact and carefully measured. When approaching Paper Tapestry #2 and Paper Dishcloth despite their opposing sizes, viewers are lost in the intricate linework and repetitive motions that Clausse has taken great care in implementing. They look appealingly tactile, yet also terrifyingly delicate. Similarly, Lane Walkup’s sculptures Heel, Boot, and Chair IV meld two disparate elements, steel and pantyhose, to re-imagine non-functional but beautiful everyday objects. Stretching the fabric over the metal skeletons, then spray painting the sheer fabric in joyful colors, these sculptures offer the ideal sculptural contrast to the three other artist’s similarly playful imaginings.
A show not to be missed - come early, stay for a while.
Lane Walkup, Chair IV, 2020, steel, fabric, and spray paint, 34.5 (h) x 15 x 13 inches