Building Bridges: Breaking Barriers | Part Two: Part Two

Lia Cook has been on a groundbreaking path for years. Her career in weaving begins with man-made technology, her artistic development moving from the complex weaving techniques and weaving experiments she used in the 1980s, including painted, pressed and stuffed warp threads, to jacquard-woven images in the early 1990s. It takes off with advances made in technology and computerization of the Jacquard. It represents new age of textile art that makes it possible for computer-aided design and manufacture to enter both industry and artists' studios.

A very inspiring part of Lia's work is her research and collaborations with neuroscientists that reveals that viewers' emotional responses to interacting with the work are informed by both material form (e.g. textile as compared to paper) and the physical translation of an image. In visual terms, she uses the images of neuronal lines (neuronal connections in the brain) made visible through Diffusion Spectrum Imaging (DSI), that resemble threads or fibers, and integrates them into actual fiber connections when creating her woven image.

Within the broader historical context, I see the foundation of bridge-building having roots in the Bauhaus. In spite of the remarkable achievements of women artists, such as Anni Albers, the Bauhaus Women in Textile have not received the due honor as the ones who ushered a rebirth of hand-weaving and new professionalism in designing textiles for mass production and who produced multi-layered fabrics, cloths with double and triple weaves, and later made extensive use of the jacquard loom. The centennial has finally paid homage to the Bauhaus woven textile artists. Perhaps, the time has come to envision the incomplete task of bridge-building and having the art market embrace the advances made in digital textile. “I am not aware of any artist working in digital textile techniques who is among the recently (re)discovered and celebrated female artists described in terms such as “overlooked”, “forgotten”, “hidden treasures”, says Lia. It’s maddening. 

When COVID-19 pandemic and the California fires erupted, Elizabeth Sher found refuge in her studio and created a new series Smoking Screens. Smoking Screen: Caged featured here is a reflection of her new environment and the tenacity to be resourceful.

In What's Inside These Shorts? compilation Sher gives us a picture of how her practice evolved and the different directions it took over the years, starting from a bad experience in the art world that led to filmmaking and a rewarding career. 

It's worth noting that Sher entered the art world during the burst of the Feminist Art Movement, an emergence of a new awareness, and Linda Nochlin's critical essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" The women artists of the seventies changed the world and certainly art. However, an examination of the historical record shows that their pursuit of quality is still lagging behind their male counterparts. According to a recent joint study conducted by Artnet Analytics and Maastricht University in 2017, 13.7% of living artists represented in galleries in Europe and North America are women, 51% of living visual artists in the US today are women and, on average, those women earn 81 cents for every dollar made by their male contemporaries.

The term "digital divide," embedded in Sher's series Crossing the Divide, was coined in the mid-1990s as a way to describe the gap in equity between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not.

That gap still exists in many parts of the US and around the world. So, we are left with the lofty dream that once we all cross the digital divide, the barriers to equality will be finally broken and the desired bridges will be built. A matter of fact, Sher's colorful images of the Crossing the Digital Divide could only made possible because the artist has at her disposal the necessary tools to create them. Thankfully, the embracement of digital technology led her to mastering a new medium, new conceptual ideas and artistic expressions.

In this section, we explore the effect of the idea of life-altering factors that led to breakthroughs and meaningful change. In her long career, Elizabeth Sher has demonstrated that change and evolution are possible in the face of hurdles.

Naomie Kremer finds memories to be a rich source of inspiration that runs through many of her works, and it's a fascinating topic to pursue amidst the breadth and diversity of studies that focus on the brain research, ranging from different functions of the brain, to memory and aging, to the impact of art and creative engagement in stimulating cognitive functions and memory.

The case of Painting from Memory, these are reminiscences of childhood that is filled with happy times and nostalgia. However, memories are often selective. In court cases, the testimonial evidence has proven that memory is fallible, and when subjected to stress and fear, our recollection of the past may be impaired. Memory is an important topic, but can't be taken at face value and must be questioned. It's very encouraging to learn of the efforts dedicated to scientific studies of the brain and memory directed towards the aging population. 

As for the general public, you might find the new publication by Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon who advocates for keeping a healthy brain, enlightening and captivating. In Keep Sharp, the section in which he debunks common myths about aging and cognitive decline, explores whether there is a "best" diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it's healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed or to engage in more social interaction is definitely worth reading. 

In A Tomb for Anatole, Kremer shows building bridges are possible in an interdisciplinary approach, which connects poets and composers to create evocative films and set designs for the stage. Both of her works raise the subject of memory that makes us who we are. 

In Unsolicited ArtForum, Pastine makes important visual critiques and interventions of the iconic, elitist and trendy covers and inside pages of the Artforum magazine. Within the context of this exhibition, we raise the question about the power and influence of art world hierarchy in building bridges for and among artists, boosting their careers or breaking them.

Founded in 1962 in San Francisco, the “Magazine” moved to Los Angeles and in 1967 relocated to New York where it shifted its focus to debates about minimal a conceptual art. It was named after the ancient Roman word forum aimed to capture the similarity of the Roman marketplace to the art world's lively engagement with public debate and commercial exchange. 

Looking closely at Pastine’s work, you notice Andy Warhol lurking from the pages of the magazine. How important is to be on the cover of the magazine or inside? As for Warhol, he succeeded in redefining the art experience, the artist himself becoming an American cultural icon, images of him are as famous as the art he created. The Unsolicited is a statement about the insider and the outsider, inclusion and exclusion. There is no better way of breaking barriers than shifting the obsolete system of the art world, in this case by re-contextualizing the original function of the magazine from an authority into an art object. 

 In Untitled 2, Gem Series, Francesca extends her bridge to a world, through her imagination she builds connections between her own searching for stability and a sense of belonging, our connection to the universe and her place in it. The abstract silk-screened diamond represent carbon, a mineral that, through its interconnectivity, is the basis for all life, thereby connecting us all to the larger universe. By tackling the hard carbon mineral, what does the artist reveal about the strenght of her character? 

During lockdown, Mary Curtis Ratcliff looked around her studio and found a treasure trove that led her to recycling, repurposing, revitalizing, recreating, saving old prints of historical value to create something new. The photographic imagery found in her work bear traces of her earlier works, like documentary files that keep track and remind us of our past experiences, travels, stories, only to give way to the new ones. The resulting artworks create unique associations between the old and the new and form the basis for building bridges of tomorrow.

The idea of building walls or barriers is not a new idea. In this county, the concept of erecting barriers has been tearing the country apart.

Teddy Milder’s triptych is an invitation to have a constructive and creative conversation that leads to building bridges and positive solutions. That bridge will enable people to connect people from around the world in meaningful ways, open to opportunities and flow of new ideas. The time has come to change the conversation from an emotionally charged debate to building a vibrant society on both sides of the fence.