Creative Explorat ion of F iber and Fabric

SPRING 2012 $10.00

D R E S S

Surface DesignCopyright Surface Design Journal®. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

6 Surface Design Journal

Cover Artwork: NICOLE DEXTRAS Lilac Swing Coat Garment made from lilac flowers, ligularia leaves, rush, and cattail, 2011. Reproduced from an archival inkjet print by the artist, 18.5" x 32".

Background Art, p7: KAREN LAMONTE Reclining Dress Impression Cast glass, life size: 20" × 63.5" × 15.75", 2005. Collection: Chrysler Museum of Art.

p20: BAYO ADEGBE Short dress with hand-painted and arranged calabash embellishment, accessories of “Adua” seeds.

Departments 52 First Person54 In Review60 Exposure62 Spotlight on Education64 In Print

D r e s sc o n t e n t sVolume 36 Number 3Spring 2012

08 Tracking the Art-to-Wear Spirit in the 21st Century / JO ANN C. STABB

14 Rodarte: Outsiders Inside the Runway / IDA MILLER

20 Authentic Hybrids in African Fashion / A. M. WEAVER

26 Sandra Woodall: More than Meets the Eye / CONNIE STRAYER

30 Nicole Dextras: Decomposing Couture / LEESA HUBBELL

34 Erica Spitzer Rasmussen: Clothes Tell the Tale / MASON RIDDLE

40 Shinique Smith: Fiber into Form / SALLY HANSELL

46 Karen LaMonte: Clothes Cast in Mystery / MARILYN MILLSTONE

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Spring2011 7

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Surface Design Journal

e d i t o r i a lDress: For Success

As I write this letter, my first as the new editorof Surface Design Journal, I can’t help but thinkof the Alexander Graham Bell adage - When onedoor closes, another opens. . . - that still rings true.When Fiberartsmagazine ended its thirty-five-year publication run last summer, I was crestfall-en by the prospect of making the announcementat the 2011 SDA conference in Minneapolis. To my surprise and delight, I was welcomed with open arms by the SDA officers and staffmembers. Though sad to see the end of such aninfluential force in the field, they were turningtheir attention toward the future of the Journalas Patricia Malarcher contemplated retirement. A few months later—after extensive in-depthinterviews and editorial visioning—I was thrilledto be offered the position.

Although Patricia made her finalfarewells in the Winter 2012 issue, it must be saidthat, due to our long-term planning, she hadcomplete editorial control of this exciting issuededicated to new and innovative wearable artforms. No doubt, she leaves some very big shoesto fill but readers can be assured that I am dedi-cated to continuing the quality and diversity ofcoverage that has made the Journal a rich andinvaluable source of textile-arts inspiration.

While learning the editorial ropes fromPatricia during my internship last fall, I discovereda wealth of international events and creative discourse through the many member benefitsthat SDA now offers—from the daily SDA Buzzposts on Facebook and Twitter to the weekly SDANewsblog articles to the monthly SDA eNews.I’ve also enjoyed learning about my new community through the gallery of SDA MembersDirectory pages. Free and easy to use, this platform affords each of our 4000 members

worldwide the chance to network and shareworks of art.

In the hopes of leading by example,Patricia and I have included screenshots of ourSDA member pages below. From Boston toBelgium, we encourage everyone to update yourpages this week by adding: a headshot; a briefstatement; links to your website, blog or Etsy shop;and two images of art work with related informa-tion. From a purely selfish perspective, I can’t waitto see this directory evolve into a comprehensivedatabase that I (and other collectors, curators, andwriters) can use as an effective research tool topromote contemporary textile art.

We may be miles apart on the map butmy “office door” is always open to suggestions for topics, trends, exhibitions, books and artists to consider for upcoming issues of the Journal.Simply email ideas and insights to journaleditor@surfacedesign.org. Article pitches and artist submissions can also be sent via email to journalsubmissions@surfacedesign.org.For submissions guidelines just check out theJournal page on our website at www.surfacedesign.org/publications/sda-journal.

I look forward to hearing from you and continuing the incredible legacy of SurfaceDesign Journal.

-Marci Rae McDadejournaleditor@surfacedesign.org

C o r r e c t i o nSDJ Winter 2012, Vol. 36, No. 2

On page 60, the last name of the author David Pierce

was misspelled as “Plerce”.

2

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17th International Surface Design Association Conference

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Information will be posted as available. Check regularly for updates.

Artwork (clockwise from top): Diedre Adams, Jennifer Libby Fay, Anita Carse, Saaraliisa Ylitalo

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30 Surface Design Journal

You’re strolling through the Public Market onGranville Island—a tourist destination in themiddle of Vancouver, British Columbia—when ayoung woman in a pointy bustier made of twigsand a skirt made of vines approaches to ask ifyou know where your clothes come from.

She wants to check your labels for fibercontent, test your knowledge about global sourc-ing, and take your temperature on sustainableproduction. She’s provocatively attired but veryengaging and gives you the gift of a leaf as sherustles away. You’ve just walked into an activistintervention by environmental artist NicoleDextras, who works outside the fashion system.Literally outside.

Made of wild rose and Japanese knot-wood among other Invasive Species (as this wear-able work was named), it is part of a series calledWeedrobes—the latest manifestation of Dextras’slife-long engagement with fashion, performanceand photography. Conceived with street theaterin mind, the piece was later placed on a dressform to become an “ephemeral installation” inDextras’s Canadian garden and completed its lifecycle reclaimed by ivy, one of the invasive speciesfrom which it was made.

Dextras states, “The intention of theWeedrobes series is to engage the public on several levels: through street interventions, gar-den settings, and gallery exhibitions. Each newpiece begins as a wearable sculpture constructedfrom local and renewable plant materials. It isthen photographed with a model in a land-scaped urban setting, emphasizing the impact ofhumans on the natural environment. The thirdstage consists of a public intervention in a shop-ping area where the garment wearer engageswith passersby regarding issues of disposableconsumer goods. The garment/sculpture is laterinstalled in a garden or park setting and left todecompose over time.”

Weedrobes are just one of many ideasgrowing out of a fertile mind, and Dextras is both

dextrous—and prolific—in multiple media.From small-town Ontario, she grew up in

an atmosphere of unfettered creativity, free toimprovise clothing, sculpture, and theatrical pro-ductions using tissue paper and boxes cast offfrom her mother’s retail fashion store. Workingminimum wage jobs after high school, she decid-ed that if she was going to be poor anyway, shemight as well be a poor artist doing work sheloved. Torn between art and theater programs,she studied painting at Emily Carr University inVancouver but shifted to interdisciplinary perfor-mance art after realizing she needed to do morephysical and sculptural work.

Post-grad, she worked in the theaterworld for ten years, starting with props that ledto costumes and set design. Next she exploredpapermaking, reinventing herself as a paper cast-er and expert at molding, carving, and calibratingdyes for paper masks that fed the brisk marketfor Native American art. Wide-ranging indepen-dent study has made her a font of informationabout alterative approaches to process.

Dextras now considers herself a sculp-tor/photographer who, like Andy Goldsworthy,documents time-sensitive work made predomi-nantly with the materials nature provides—anddestroys. But she has been very mindful of mak-ing work that is nothing like Goldsworthy’s inorder to express her own aesthetic concerns. Sheis a founding member of the Art is Land Network,a Vancouver-based group working within thegenre of environmental art.

“I make work with ice in winter and withfoliage in summer,” she explains in a short video.Driven by an ongoing urge to merge sculpturewith photography, she realized—during anunusually cold Vancouver winter—that the beau-ty of swirling fabric and color in a dye bath couldbe held still by freezing it. Thus began her seriesof ephemeral and enigmatic Iceshifts, conceivedto capture the multilayered aspects of the self.

Once summer came, a pile of laurel

b y L e e s a H u b b e l l

N i c o l e D e x t r a s

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31Spring2012

NICOLE DEXTRAS

Invasive SpeciesGarment madefrom: wild rose,willow, Englishivy, knotweed,camellia flowers,fabric, 2009.Reproduced froman archival inkjetprint by theartist, 18.5" x 32".LEFT: Lace LeafCollar Magnolialeaves, raffia,thorns, 2009.Reproduced froman archival inkjetprint by theartist, 14" x 9.5".

leaves in an alley sparked an experi-ment to create a wearable garmentout of leaves—without sewing—thathas evolved into a major body ofbotanical activism—held together by thorns.

Weedrobes interventions in2011 have included Lilac Swing Coat, a“manteau parfumé” and commentaryon the manufactured need for artificialscents created by the perfume indus-try. Maple Flapper Jumper representedthe enterprising 1920s immigrant,newly arrived in Canada and destinedfor work in the garment industry.Laurel Suffragette, made of hydrangeaflowers, baby's breath, and laurelleaves with a lacey corn husk jabot andgreen tomato button, was a show-stopper on Robson Street—the maindrag of Vancouver retail fashion. Laurelis on a mission to rally awareness and

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NICOLE DEXTRAS Maple Flapper Jumper Garment madefrom red maple tree seeds, lupines, dragon tongueleaves, smoke bush, rush and cattail leaves, 2011.

Reproduced from an archival inkjet print by the artist, 18.5" x 32".

RIGHT: Laurel Suffragette Street Intervention Laurelleaves, hala leaves, hydrangea flowers, corn husks, caning, magnolia petals, baby’s breath, tomatoes,

Russian olive tree thorns, 2011.

N i c o l e D e x t r a s

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33Spring2012

support for workers’ rights in garment factories—both past and present.

Mobile Garden Dress—100% com-postable—was commissioned for the 2011International Vancouver Children’s Festival. It’s “aself-sustaining garden and shelter for the newurban nomad, complete with pots of edibleplants and a hoop skirt which converts into atent at night.” With that as focal point of fun,Dextras held workshops for kids who created anEco-Wardrobe clothesline installation of tiny “gar-ments” made from flowers and greenery about tobe thrown out by local florists.

Underpinning these transient works aresome enduring challenges to the status quo.Dextras writes: “My current art practice is rootedin the environmental art movement. It is basedon the theories of seminal artists such as JosephBeuys’s notion of ‘infiltration’ which integrates artand social change, as well as Robert Smithson’s‘nonsite’ theory, which challenged the parame-ters of the conventional gallery setting. TheWeedrobes project can be positioned as a hybridof environmental art within a socially engagedpractice because of its relation to ecology, culture, and eco-feminism. Taking these sculp-tures to the streets is a form of reclaiming thebody as a public site. In this respect, Weedrobesdraws on works such as Jana Sterbak’s Flesh Dress

and Beverly Semmes’s sculptural garments thatfocus on the garment as an extension of the body.”

Dextras’s stunning website (nicoledex-tras.com), which took a year to create, rewardsthe viewer with witty writing and outstandingvisual documentation of her many, and far-flung,projects. Don’t miss her work using felt, under“Public Installations,” for the 1st Land Art Biennialin Mongolia (2010). Her Iceshifts and IceTypography series are a must-see.

Late to recognize her creative gifts,Dextras describes herself as the last person torealize she should be studying art. Her favoritequote: “The greatest asset to an artist is not tal-ent, it’s courage.” Creatives and culture-vultureseverywhere can only hope that much more willbe dared by this adroit social critic—and fashionoutsider.

Work by Nicole Dextras will be included in Fashionality:Dress and Identity in Contemporary Canadian Artcurated by Julia Pine at the McMichael Canadian ArtCollection in Kleinburg, Ontario (May 5-September 2,2012).

—Leesa Hubbell is a writer/educator and fashionindustry veteran who also creates SDA’s Digital NewsPublications and presence on Facebook. She writes forthe Surface Design Journal about fashion, design andthe business of creating.

NICOLE DEXTRAS Lilac Swing Coat Garment made from lilac flowers, ligularia leaves, rush, and cattail, 2011. Reproduced from an archival inkjet print by the artist, 18.5" x 32".

Wrapping Traditions: Korean Textiles NowMuseum of Craft and Folk Art

Prominently displayed in the Museum of Craftand Folk Art's front window is a large, elegantrendition of traditional bojagi—the Koreanwrapping cloth. Harmony by Sora Lee, providesan immediate lesson and explanation of the bojagi technique prevalent in WrappingTraditions: Korean Textiles Now (June 17– October22, 2011). With only the occasional fiber slub asadditional visual texture within the sheer groundof white silk fabric pieces, the fine containedseams graphically delineate an abstract formalistpattern. The size of a bedding cover, with long

ties at each corner, Harmony is hung over anacrylic rod in front of an orange wall; when themuseum’s door opens, small gusts of air cause it toflutter, as if hanging on a clothesline in the wind.

This notion of function is inherent in alltraditional bojagi (or pojagi), the Korean clothsused for wrapping gifts as well as covering andprotecting other household items. There are twodistinct types of bojagi—those made from small,salvaged fabric remnants pieced together intoabstract patchwork forms and those made fromsingle pieces of fabric with elaborate embroi-dered decoration. Class usually distinguished thetype of bojagi made during the Joseun Dynasty(1392-1910), but all were made by womenmarginalized in an extremely patriarchal society,similar to the contemporary Taliban inAfghanistan. The bojagi was a unique creativeoutlet in an otherwise closeted existence.

Curator Chunghie Lee has beenresearching and sharing this Korean legacy fornearly twenty years. Through public workshopsand her adjunct teaching position at RhodeIsland School of Design, Lee has developed the

ultimate bojagi lesson plan,allowing her students to constantly reinterpret this tra-ditional craft. Lee has alsoorganized several exhibitionssimilar to Wrapping Traditions,most notably Pojagi andBeyond,* which toured manyinternational venues in thepast several years.

With the exception ofthe pieces on one center wallthat contains mostly traditionalbojagi by Korean artists, thereare a variety of techniques,materials, and conceptual ideasscattered throughout themuseum’s small and crowdedgallery space. A distinctiveorganization and more didactic information abouteach piece would have helpedprovide a stronger contextualframework for viewing theexhibition.

In general, the mostcompelling pieces are thosethat clearly speak about bojagi,

56

Reviewed by Susan Taber Avila

i nr eviewSan Francisco, California

BOK HEE LEE Yellow Wrapping ClothHandwoven hemp, hand stitching, natural dye, 24" x 24", 2009.

Surface Design Journal

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57Spring2012

either through structure or concept. Bok HeeLee’s Yellow Wrapping Cloth is bojagi perfection. Itis difficult to believe that this beautiful piecefrom 2009 was not made centuries ago. It speaksat once of ancient traditions and contemporarylife in its adherence to bojagi principles.Composed of color-blocked linen in predomi-nantly gold and ochre hues punctuated withlavender, rust and black, the piece demonstratesexquisite visual balance.

Contemporary takes on the formal boja-gi pieced structure include Hae-hong Chang’sBlack Project. The repeated imagery on this longrectilinear piece of dark black shadows recalls anancient city in the mist of dawn. In contrast to thesomber tone of Black Project, Yea Geum Jung‘sKorean Fantasy embraces an abundance of ener-getic color with the central panel of patchworkslashed to reveal even more variety of hue.Nestled among the solid blocks of color are twosmall areas of printed cloth as a clever nod to thebojagi tradition of recycling. While both Chang’sand Jung’s work include embroidery stitches forvisual emphasis, Mary Ruth Smith alludes to thepatchwork structure through the stitching pro-cess. The intensive embroidery in Crossoverdivides her work into smaller pieces with a profu-sion of marks and pattern, invoking an awarenessof time and labor.

Rather than working with the visualstructure of traditional bojagi, Barbara Shapiro’sWrapping Memory (Baskets) take the function ofbojagi as her concept. With scraps of her ownhand-woven and dyed cloth, Shapiro haswrapped plaited, indigo-dyed cane baskets tometaphorically contain the memory of herdeceased brother. Glass Bojagi by ElisabethSchubel also reminds us of loss—as if memoryand traditions have melted away in this smallslumped glass object delineated by pieced rededges. Jeeun Kim's Response triggers a kitchenmemory with her whimsical organization of a redplastic net—one that might contain nuts ororanges in a grocery. Displayed floating in space,the netting is stretched and sewn at the base toform a gridded square while the relaxedunstretched net creates a sea of masculine pro-trusions jutting out into space.

The breadth of work in WrappingTraditions pays homage to the anonymous cre-ative women who first developed bojagi. Andjust like EunSook Lee’s Transparent Bojagi madefrom riveted glow-in-the-dark PVC , curatorChunghie Lee reminds us that when the lights goout, bojagi tradition will still be there.

*Bojagi is now the preferred spelling.

—Susan Taber Avila is Professor of Design at UC Davisand Sunshine Scholar at Wuhan Textile University, China.

HEESON YOO (Korean National Living Treasure for Embroidery)Butterfly Peony Bojagi Hand-embroidered, 31" x 31", 2011.

SUNGSOON LEE Seon Printing and drawing on ramie, 22.7" x 204.7", 2010-11.

60

E POSURE

DELLA REAMS

Doha, QatarQatar FloraMixed fiber yarns, hand-hyperbolic crochet, hand-and machine-knit, purchasedcomposite vases, hiddenwire armature, 2009

AMANDA SALMPacific Grove, CaliforniaKnot Tu BeHorsehair, natural dyes, nylon core, 6.5" x 3.5" x 3.5"Photo: Scott MacDonald

LORIE H. MCCOWN

Fredericksburg, VirginiaEncroachmentFabrics and fibers, hand-dyed, hand- and machine-appliqué, sewn and embroidered,40" x 42", 2011Photo: Paul Moshay

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61Spring2012

Artists represented on the “Exposure” pages are members of theSurface Design Association (www.surfacedesign.org).

MARLISS BORENZ JENSENMinneapolis, MinnesotaVitality TrellisLayers of Procion H dye and Inko resist, hand-painted and stenciled on Peru cotton jacquard.174" x 54", 2010Photo: Steven G. Jensen

NELDA WARKENTIN

Phillips, MaineSpringPainted silk over cotton and canvas,machine-constructed and quilted.42" x 42", 2011Photo: Russell Caron

asti

HistoryFounded in 1977, the Surface Design Association is an interna-

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surface design by inspiring creativity and encouraging inno-

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