"Mass I" by Yeonhee Cheong.
Arsenal, an exhibition at Arts + Literature Laboratory, is a modern-day homage to fiber as a historical weapon forged by women.
The exhibit, on display through Jan. 27, weaves together works from 11 women artists who use materials and techniques — including embroidery, macramé, sewing, knotting and flocking — to examine the relationship between weapons, women and society, and the profound influence of fiber work on human culture. An opening reception is slated for Jan. 13, 7-10 p.m.
“Given our current political climate, this is such a powerful topic, especially for women,” says Arsenal’s curator Erica Hess, 38, an MFA student in the UW-Madison Design Studies program at the School of Human Ecology. Because fiber work doesn’t last as long as wood, stone or metal, textile artifacts traditionally created by women, like nets and clothing, have been lost to disintegration. But that impermanence doesn’t diminish the importance of fiber to the development of human culture. Hess points to the work of textile historian Elizabeth Barber, whose research inspired Hess’ curatorial proposal.
In her 1994 book, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years, Barber calls string the “unseen weapon that allowed the human race to conquer the earth” — enabling humans to catch, hold, carry and bind things and create more complex objects, including early weapons. The exhibit provides a forum to ponder the durability of women amid such current threats as institutionalized sexism.
The artists in the exhibit come from around the United States; one hails from Lithuania. Their media include found objects, jacquard, poetry on computer punch cards and plastic.
California-based multimedia artist Carrie Minikel’s hand-weapon sculpture is a club-like mace with knitting needles serving as spikes. Minikel, a UW-Madison alum, was inspired by feelings of anger and helplessness as a modern woman. Memories of her grandmother venting frustration by driving nails into wood in the garage contributed to the weaponry motif.
The sculpture “Mass I,” by Madison-based UW-Madison alum Yeonhee Cheong, features a multi-layered rainbow of variously textured knitting yarn wound through a phalanx of spear-like welding electrodes. Cheong, 43, calls it “a building in splendid but humble material” inspired by “a cake decoration, among many other things.” She says in her artist’s statement that the labor of caring and communicating is done primarily by women. This labor, says Cheong, is the substance of human society.
Soft objects like fibers aren’t typically thought of for their as strong and powerful qualities, Hess says. As she feels pulled to claim strength in her own life, she hopes people who view the exhibit will also draw power from it.
The objects are weapons, but are not necessarily aggressive or violent, she says. “These objects have power as much when they are folded up and put away as soft and pliable objects. They’re much stronger than we think they are.”
