{"id":842,"date":"2016-08-11T22:16:41","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T14:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gertrudmuller.com\/?p=842"},"modified":"2023-10-05T08:53:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T06:53:09","slug":"textile-tesserae-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mosaicmoments.de\/en\/textile-tesserae-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Textile & Tesserae exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My Mosaic Tile at the exhibition Textiles & Tesserae at the Institute of Mosaic Art, Berkeley, USA<\/p><\/div>\n

The Art of the Whole: Textiles and Tesserae<\/a><\/h1>\n
June 29, 2016<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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What do we so love about hand-made quilts, besides their lasting, cottony goodness? That they were stitched into harmony by someone who saw the potential for unity in a pile of fabric scraps.<\/p>\n

And mosaics? We love that someone gave new \u2018life\u2019 (as it were) to the beautiful, broken pieces of plates or glass or stone walls.<\/p>\n

Both quilting and mosaics began as crafts with utilitarian purposes and have been elevated to high art by some makers. Countless people from all walks of life have found these arts more accessible than painting, drawing, or sculpture, and achieved significant artistry. There are hundreds of active mosaicists and quilters in the Bay Area at levels from hobbyist to fine artist. The annual exhibit of the\u00a0East Bay Heritage Quilters<\/a>\u00a0fills the gigantic Craneway Pavilion on the Richmond waterfront. There are also artists who do both.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Color<\/div>\n
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Color Block #1 – Quilt by Deborah Block<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI have been making mosaics for eight or nine years and started looking at quilts a few years ago for inspiration for my mosaics,\u201d says Deborah Block, of Walnut Creek. \u00a0\u201cAnd then, because I know how to sew, I started making quilts as well. I especially like the use of repeated motifs and simple designs in both media. The crossover seems natural to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Block is one of 40 artists whose work will brighten the walls of the Institute of Mosaic Art (IMA) this summer in a fresh gallery show that showcases the dialogue between the two mediums.<\/p>\n

For \u201cTextiles and Tesserae,\u201d the IMA asked for submissions of mosaic or textile art that referenced the other in some way. Mosaics inspired by kimonos or ethnic weaves were suggested, or quilts inspired by mosaics. A \u2018tessera,\u2019 for the uninitiated, is a small piece of stone, tile, glass or other material used as the basic building block of a mosaic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, many quilts were called tile quilts,\u201d says Nancy Bavor, Curator of Collections at San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum. \u201cThere are huge similarities between the two arts in terms of technique, in that you take large pieces of a material — whether ceramic, glass or fabric — break it into smaller pieces and reassemble them into a new whole which has nothing to do with the original purpose.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\""Untitled"<\/div>\n
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“Untitled” by Carrie Fradkin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite the fact that mosaics are a more ancient art than quilting, the general public has not necessarily kept up with the artistic evolution of mosaics in the 20th and 21st centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.S. we have a long tradition of quilting — think quilting bees — so I suspect that’s why we have more quilters than mosaicists,\u201d says Block. \u201cIn other parts of the world \u00a0— Italy, for example — I suspect there is a much larger mosaic community because there is a long tradition of making mosaics.<\/p>\n

“It is surprising to me how many people I talk to here who don’t know what a mosaic is. No one has ever asked me what a quilt is.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those who do have a concept of mosaics often think of the folksy \u201cpique-assiette\u201d (broken plate) technique. But many contemporary mosaicists construct their work out of pristine sheets of stained glass, ceramic or glass tiles, which they cut to the needs of the particular piece. The diverse materials are rich in color, comparable to daubs of oil paint, and their arrangement can be as subtle as a brush stroke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\""Interleaved"\u00a0by<\/div>\n
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“Interleaved”\u00a0by Kathy Richardson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cPattern is important for both mediums and though one involves hard materials and the other soft, both are flexible enough to work with,\u201d Bavor says.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, artists recognized that the spaces between the materials (\u201cinterstices\u201d in the vocabulary of mosaics) were equally important elements of composition and they have become ever more so in contemporary iterations of these arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grout lines in mosaics can be seen as parallels to the stitching, or lattice, of textile art,\u201d Bavor confirms. The exhibit at the IMA, comprised of about 42 individual pieces, demonstrates the many ways in which this motif can play out.<\/p>\n

One large, vibrantly colored quilt called \u201cCinco de Mayo,\u201d by award-winning quilter Betty Thurman, was reimagined as a mosaic (\u201cCinco de Mayo in Glass\u201d) by her daughter, Jan Ghilaine Wolfe. Both works serve as centerpieces and counterpoints to one another in this show.<\/p>\n

Deborah Block also offers two works (\u201cColor Blocks #1 and #2\u201d) inspired by quilting patterns, one in fabric and the other in smalti, which are tiny, hand-cut cut cubes of densely color-saturated glass.<\/p>\n

As with many of the contributors, mosaicists\u00a0Jill Stevenson-Ritter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Amelia Williams<\/a>\u00a0were inspired to create new works expressly for this show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have wanted to do a mosaic prayer rug for some time so the Textiles and Tesserae show was a good prompt,\u201d says Williams. While Williams is not Muslim, she once spent time in Indonesia and was moved by some of the cultural practices of the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the whole idea of the call to prayer, the idea that the divine calls out to us, to humanity, and we respond to it. In my mosaic I want to portray the prayer rug as our response to that invitation,\u201d she says. Her intricate and ambitious piece, aptly titled \u201cCall to Prayer,\u201d depicts a rug still on the loom, with a three-dimensional aspect where the bottom of the rug curls up.<\/p>\n

She recently learned that technique at a workshop with Australian mosaic artist\u00a0Marian Shapiro<\/a>, at the\u00a0Society of American Mosaic Artists<\/a>\u00a0conference in San Diego last April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\""Ripple<\/div>\n
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“Ripple Effect on the Spiritual” by Keenan Saiz<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The challenges of representing the flowing qualities of textiles in the solid materials of mosaic were familiar to Jill Stevenson-Ritter, a longtime instructor at the IMA. Her piece for this show, \u201cChinese Silk,\u201d is a beautiful 12-by-12-inch gem in chocolate browns, golds, and purples. For technical reasons she had to simplify the Chinese symbols seen in the piece of fabric that inspired her: \u2018translation\u2019 required innovation. And whereas the silk was shiny throughout, she chose to use matte ceramic tile as a background in order to offset the reflective gold and purple flowers: it works.<\/p>\n

Another piece by Stevenson-Ritter was inspired by Panamanian\u00a0molas<\/em>, a traditional fabric art made with a reverse appliqu\u00e9 technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in love with\u00a0molas<\/em>\u00a0since I first saw them in the 1960s,” Stevenson-Ritter says. “Translating the ideas from one medium to the other was hard. It forced me to start measuring and drawing and really thinking about where I wanted my grout lines to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most of the pieces in the show are exemplary works of either mosaic or textile art, Keenan Saiz\u2019 \u201cRipple Effect on the Spiritual\u201d is a cyanotype (photographic) print on silk, stitched to simulate mosaic tiles. It\u2019s an intriguing hybrid.<\/p>\n

“Textiles and Tesserae” will be the final gallery exhibit at the Institute of Mosaic Art, which is to close its doors by the end of August. The show opens July 9 and will close with a grand finale party the evening of August 21, from 4-7 p.m., with many artists in attendance. The Gallery is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 805 Allston Way, in Berkeley. Entrance is free.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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