July 27 - August 19, 2018
Diuguid, Duggan, Lovell, Smith and Van Gorder Group Exhibit: "(We)eds"
Frable Gallery
Opening Reception
Friday, July 27, 2018, 6-9 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Closing Artist Talk
Sunday, August 19, 2018, 2 pm
Free and Open to the Public
Gabrielle Duggan
Working in the context of a rich tradition, I stretch "women’s work" to restore power to marginalized subjects.
Cottonweed is a hand woven, digital jacquard piece that uses cotton as a lens through which contemporary power structures can be considered.
Cotton exemplifies several relationships of power, amongst humans, and between humans and other species. Growing and processing these plants for their fiber has been fraught with both agency and oppression for generations and currently dictates the fate of many people through legal limitations. This strong connection to power has been exemplified through British Colonization of India and Mohandas Gandhi’s use of textiles in civil disobedience (Satyagraha), and its role in American use and cultivation, from slavery to present-day laws restricting natural, independent cultivation.
The structure of the piece reflects these relationships that are balanced in tension, through digital forms depicting contemporary laws around cotton growing that become overpowered and abstracted by the physical, organic elements. GabrielleDuggan.com
Katherine Diuguid
After a number of years doing goldwork embroidery, Katherine had amassed a large collection of metal "weeds" – threads and wires that had tarnished or been damaged and could not be used for formal, traditional goldwork embroidery. One day as she was working on a traditional goldwork piece, her growing pile of "weeds" suddenly reminded her of the dandelions that her son would pick her and lovingly give her. Katherine's "Weeds Collection" explores the manipulation of traditional techniques and materials by utilizing her gilt cast offs to create delicate floral slips reminiscent of the beautiful botanical illustrations from the Victorian era. Each composition captures the beauty of weeds and invasive wildflowers native to North Carolina that Katherine has photographed and sketched near her house and her parents farm in Iredell and Caldwell counties. www.KatherineDiuguid.com
Precious Lovell
Jacqueline Kennedy's pink Chanel suit, Monica Lewinsky's notorious blue dress, Princess Diana's wedding dress. What women have worn at pivotal moments in their lives have become tied to their identities and the stories of those defining moments. For the (We)eds project I have simulated one of the suits worn by attorney and law professor Anita Hill during the 1991 Senate Judiciary Hearings for the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. During the hearings Ms. Hill detailed instances of sexual harassment that she endured from Thomas. Yet, her testimony fell on deaf ears and the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Thomas' nomination. Recent events have proven, what Anita Hill endured was not an isolated event but has been status quo in the political arena, and beyond, since time immemorial. With this work I am repositioning this fearless woman of African descent, who against all odds, did what she believed was the right thing to do.
Shelley Smith
This series is an expression of the vast capability of resilience found innate among us all. The source images of trees grown wild in a yard unkempt were taken with an iPhone 5 and reference the strength of a weed left alone to grow strong with only the resources around it. The world often seems too full and so much of life is holding joy in one hand and sorrow in the other. These two experiences can exist simultaneously and at their intersection is where hope is found. The light of the moon is visible even when the orb itself is obscured.
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