A New Era for Textiles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGkPQRdDWXc&sns=em

Above is a video taken at an E textile conference about conductive thread technology. 

Basically the manufacturer is spinning stainless steel to create yarn. Stainless steel is conductive to electricity which is measured in OHMS per foot. 

Normally you want 0 resistance so you get lots of energy.

So the higher the Ohms, the more juice gets through the thread or wire as we usually think of it.

Resistance is bad.

for electrical stuff and marital relations and two year olds. 

Almost anything that can be done with common fibers can be made in a conductive form now. Thin thread, thick thread, braid, elastic, fabric , non woven, woven, and knit. 

 It is expensive and a bit hard to get in a form that has the smooth, non fraying qualities and ease of use by hand or sewing machine for the hobbyist but this video shows me that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of what is out there for the big industry players. Maybe they will let us have samples or off runs.

It's exciting to think of ways that science and art will be bringing computer technology and smarts to our clothing, blankets, car and airplane seats, headbands, blood pressure cuffs.......lingerie? 

We have entered a new era for textiles!

Www.KevanArt.com

Http://KevanArt.blogspot.com

Www.FiberRevolution.com

Sent from my iPad

Textile Art on the International Art Scene. The Armory show, NYC

Heaven is two hundred booths of art from contemporary galleries from all over the world. That is what I saw at the 100th Anniversary Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94, in NYC on March 7th.
It was very surprising  to see some artists using thread and fabric as their medium in this venue.

Homage to Duchamp

There were nods to Marcel Duchamp's painting,  "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" aplenty, paying homage to him as he exhibited at the first show. Several of his original pieces were also on view.
Stunned

 A few pieces, though not his,   stunned me just as his work must have stunned his 1913 audience. One of those was the form of a life sized man, seemingly collapsed under a blanket on the bare floor. The blanket caught my eye of course, I love fabric so much!  but the piece made me feel helpless and without hope.
Abstract

For the most part though,  the work was on the wall, and  abstract.
Texture
Some of the wall art was in relief, and some was quite deep. One was concrete mixed with paper and another was made of match sticks, dirt, plaster and paint.  
Missing
There was very little photo realism, and  one kinetic sculpture that I remember

There were sculptures also, mostly on a smaller scale. Perhaps they are just easier to transport.  I expected to see more L.E.D. light art or computer driven images. I think there was only 6 or so pieces that were lit or moving.  I only noticed two  projection pieces. One was actually using a reel to reel projector complete with the click, click sound I remember from childhood. The projector was more prominent than the image being projected onto a white weather balloon. The other was a mash up of eyes and mouths projected onto a stool sized object, the mouths were talking as a recording played. I love to see new media pieces but the equipment is always awkwardly in the center of a space trying to disappear but in a black wood box sized to trip over. This show was disappointing because I thought I would be seeing more of this cutting edge technology, but I was more than pleased by seeing the simple work of the hand in my favorite field of
FIBER!

Below I will offer you photos from the show of the fiber art related pieces, with details of each, and two pieces in wood that I think will inspire fiber artists. Enjoy! And please leave a comment. Thanks!

artist Chiharu Shiota

Artist Chiharu Shiota 
Detail of kimono surrounded by thread.
Steel frame approx 5 ft high, child's silk kimonosurrounded by a web of black thread. It appeared
 that the thread  only pierced the  kimono at the
 ends of the hanging rod. This is on a 
white pedestal, the beige square to the left is the 
cement floor.

Paint on an 1960's era Pakistani quilt.
The blue field is a dye transfer that appears
 original to the piece since it is underneath
 and does not affect the stitching.
The black field is a patch sewn to the corner.
The brown circle and the octopus is painted.
The small brown square appears to be a stain.

This nearly 7 foot tall piece is entirely hand stitched in 1/4 " stitches with white thread on black fabric.  The stitches run horizontally. There are spaces left that form verticals which evoke a feeling of city buildings glistening at night. The red stripes are inserts which although they are lower than the black, they visually pop up to the surface.

This is another version by the same artist.
Chiyu Uemae

The lights make this piece appear as if it is glowing, but  it wasn't.  Its just a bad picture of a beautiful piece. The inner square was thickly stitched with embroidery threads on a black background which peeks through.
The painted canvas borders were a nice frame in a slightly different tone.

You can make out some knots which add texture to Chiyu  Uemae's work.

I am sure you can see the reference to our fiber -art world and to quilts here.
This Delucia piece is 2 sheets of plywood! They are screwed to the wall.  This is my interpretation of the process. I hope it helps you understand what you are looking at. The amazing texture, depth and moire affect is achieved by incising the surface about every 1/4" in a diagonal direction. As the grooves approached the center they became deeper , reaching a new ply ,until the wood splintered and broke away.  The surface was painted black before the cutting. Areas were then enhanced with black paint after cutting. Some grooves were painted and some of the moire wood grain was enhanced with paint. This piece stunned me. I want to speak to the artist about how this process started and progressed. It is so sophisticated but so humble. 

Here you can see the large splinters in the center and the white wall.

If the illusion in the other piece didn't amaze you, perhaps this one will! You are looking at a piece that is about 5 ft square. you can see down the isle as it is close to the end of the wall. Look carefully, do you see the four violet squares on point? Do you see a center lighter square? Does the background seem pale green?

Here is a side view. The yellow spikes are another piece. There are 400 white wood cubes mounted along one edge, the backs of which are painted a bright color, either cobalt. primary green or neon yellow. The rest is reflection and shadow and your perception. AMAZING! 

and this shot is too beautiful for words. 

and there you have it. Inspiration for fabric artists from the International art scene.

My Studio has been Published

The new photo article “Studio Shots” has been published on the Artsy Shark website – and includes a shot of  my studio space.

Artists can be solitary people, especially when working, so a peek into their creative spaces is like seeing a rare animal in their habitat.

Here is the article link http://bit.ly/X202Xp . 

Make yourself a cup of tea, and visit with me and the other artists there. 

and while you are there, leave a comment for Carolyn Edlund of www.ArtsyShark.com, who got All these rare birds to send in photos! thanks Carolyn! Www.artsyshark.com

The Cyrus Cylinder, 2600 years of Middle Eastern History and Thomas Jefferson

Cyrus Cylinder , 6th century B.C. Clay, The British Museum

     Anyone familiar with my work knows how I enjoy Archaeological objects. especially those which include text. So I became curious when  I read a notice of a major exhibition from the British Museum planned to travel to five major US museums in 2013. The Cyrus Cylinder is a clay cylinder about 10 by 4 inches. But its importance in history far overshadows its small size.


    It is inscribed with 45 lines of cuneiform script. These words are a message from the new ruler and King of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great. He begins by trash talking the previous guy and then goes on to tell us how great he is. Do things ever change? But the significance of the text is that it seems to encourage freedom of worship and allowed deported people to return to their countries.

     Cyrus lead a successful multicultural and multi-faith society for about 30 years  His empire stretched form Asia Minor in the west to the Northwestern areas of India in the east. Which has me wondering, just how does one conquer all that land and keep a glowing reputation for 2600 years? 

     The practice of religious tolerance by Cyrus, and by projection,  this clay chunk, although it may not say it outright,  have made the Cyrus Cylinder famous. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights.  The United Nations has a replica of the clay text. Thomas Jefferson read Cyrus and it is said that it influenced his input to the writing of the Constitution, and Cyrus is mentioned 23 times in the Old Testament. That is what holds the fascination for me, as Neil MacGregor says in his TED talk, our objects have lives beyond ours.
Click for tour dates
Click here For a TED talk

Juried into Audubon Artists Inc.Exhibition 2012

Archeology Fragment #14 Enso. 54 x 48" Kevan Lunney

Award!
Fragment #14 has been awarded the Marquis Who's Who References Award for Collage and Mixed Media. I will receive two publications worth $600.

Archeology Fragment #14, Enso has

 been selected for the annual Online exhibit at The Audubon Artists Inc website. Entered into the mixed media category, it joins 34 other works.

You can visit the page here

More about Audubon Artists, Inc. here.

Early Man Makes Tools as Precursor to Language, and application to art

A million years of producing stone tools may have established the neural pathways necessary for language. One and a half million years ago the Ascheulean hand ax was the I-Phone of its day. The mental skills required for its development like  learning the material qualities, and predicting the outcome of certain strikes upon its surface and more, provided the same complex, sequential thoughts towards an end that are necessary for language development.  As it turns out tool making and language are accomplished in the same area of the brain. ( Link to program What Makes Us Human, 10/10/12)

Richard Serra, Junction   

Richard Serra, the prominent sculptor of magnificent environments  made of gargantuan, rusted, steel plates, says in his  interview with Charlie Rose, that he creates his own tools. He was using a paint stick that had a wrapper that took considerable time to peel as he worked.  It took so much time and made him so frustrated that he  named the piece "Abstract Slavery". His solution was to take many paint sticks and melt them down into loaf pans to create a brick that he could draw with using both hands. Drawing is a practice that is very important to Serra to keep him loose and disciplined.




He says that the artists he finds most interesting make their own tools and procedures. siting (Jasper) Johns' stencils and Pollacks drips, Seurat's (Conte') Crayons. "You're not going to build art out of the art store. You have to invent your own tools and your own procedures."

When I heard these two things just weeks apart I thought about the comparison of ancient man developing tools to build language development  and contemporary artists creating tools which aid to creative language. So I believe that by developing your own tools and processes you are also developing your own art language. It is your own vocabulary. It is the realization of the definition of creativity, using things that exist to make things and ideas that did not previously exist.

Archeology experimentation. Wash test. The batting shreds!

I am often asked, what is the gold that you use on your work? How do you get it to stick? Where are the stitches in your work? Is that sewing? The answers to these questions are my own tools, my own art language. The tools, materials and processes used in my first  Archeology pieces took  three months  to develop.
 The creative process takes time and it requires experimentation. I make samples, keep notes, buy new products, and try old ones.
During the creative process, when I have an idea for something that I do not know how to make, I will record a note of the idea. I do not let it go. I may be stuck because I do not see the solution then, but in working it out one will come. Sometimes many new ideas come as a result of the exploration of this one original problem.

This is the meaning of thinking outside the box. When you get to a wall, choose not to see the wall. It reminds me of a story about a fly who is trying to fly outside but continually flies into the glass. Defeated he lands on the window sill, just in front of the open window. Do you sit there on the sill in front of the solution or do you try new ones?
I encourage you to develop your own tools, and at the same time develop your own art language.

Why Innovation Matters

What a nice surprise to open my Aug/Sept 2012 issue of American Craft magazine and see my work pictured there! Just click on the link above and you can read the article too!

Archeology Fragment #15 Enso Compassion 2011, 56 x 45"  

"Why Innovation Matters" is an interview by Monica Moses, editor in chief, with David Revere McFadden, one of the jurors of the Art Quilt Elements exhibition at the Wayne Art Center, and curator at the Museum of Art and design in NYC. This show was part of  Philadelphia's city wide event called Fiber Philly held bi-annually.

My work titled Archeology Fragment #15, Enso Compassion was juried into the show, and  received a Surface Design Award from the Surface Design Association. 

It joins two other award winners in the same article, Dianne Firth's Red Stones #2 which received the juror's choice award and Memories of Gombe by Mary Pal which received the Heartstrings Award. 
This piece was purchased at the show; three wonderful surprises!