barbara wisnoski’s textile art

Barbara Wisnoski’s 2.5D textile wall installations are a visual treat, offering up waves of color, sumptuous textures and lessons in the zen of non-precision.

[nonmember]This archived post is for Members Only. Click here to become a member or to get a one day pass. If you are a member, please login to view the post. [/nonmember][private_archives]The work, made from bits and pieces of recycled fabric and clothing, has been described as dwelling “happily in the gaps between art, craft and design”.  Wisnoski’s artist statement is poetic and engaging enough for me to include it in full below.

Grey Rain Sea

Grey Rain Sea, detail

Folded Circle

Folded Circle, detail

“Happily freed from precision, this is cutting and sewing as mantra, as pure, riotous activity. I harness traditional textile-piecing techniques to explore structure and process, and the interplay between surface and depth. As structure, these pieces juxtapose tactile and pictorial fields. As maniacally repetitive process, they embody the meaning I derive from textiles and ritual, and carry contradictory connotations of repetition’s beauty and innate absurdity…

Earth

Earth, detail

Evening

Evening, detail

I am interested in the relationship between texture and time. The process of building a piece, whereby a fabric loses its singular quality and becomes part of the whole, reminds me of how time washes a harmonious patina over objects and memories. The prospect of decay is key to the work: seeing how pieces done long ago have changed over time reminds me that they were made from living fibres and, like us, evolve and deteriorate. Also like us, these pieces become more themselves, therefore more beautiful, with age.”[/private_archives]