VISITOR-CENTERED EXHIBITIONS. SPRING 2016
Exhibit Design Team: Jay Boda Natale Coombs Jane Hamel Alexia Lobaina Albena Maslinkova Jessie Spraggins Rochford Liz Spraggins Morgan Szymanski Maggie Vaughn Anthony Woodrufft
Instructor: Dr. Ann Rowson Love
This exhibition was planned and researched by all the members of the Visitor-Centered Exhibitions Class, Spring 2016, Florida State University.
Catalog design by Alexia Lobaina
Inspired by her family's reuse of household items, and by the wealth of scrap material in
her grandfather's junkyard, Phi 11 ips began combining found objects and paint at the very beginning of her art career (Fig. 1).
Memories of her grandmother using dowsing rods on their land inspired connections with unseen forces that Phi I lips
identifies as a "great source of wonderment in my childhood," and that would later help shape the narratives of some of her work.
The somewhat surreal, yet oddly relatable landscapes and characters of the
Appalachian outskirts in Phillips' artworks are remnants of her childhood imagination, which she has turned loose on memory,
history, and identity. In 1995, Phillips' work transitioned
from mixed media paintings that
incorporate found objects such as wood and glass, to pieces that focus on the use of paint, thread, and fabric. Having moved to
New Orleans to earn her MFA at Tulane University's Newcomb College, Phillips'
former art pieces proved too impractically heavy for the move. As a result, she began to
fashion artwork out of lighter found materials, using a sowing machine to apply thicker layers of textiles (Fig. 2).
Figure 1
Pink Eye, 1994 Gina Phillips oil on canvas, glass, wood 27.5" X 24.75"
Figure 2
Miss Marrieta, 2001 Gina Phillips fabric, thread, fake fur
3. Gina Phillips, "A Thirsty Switch Still Quivers For Me: The Art ofGinaPhillips,"www.21cmuseumhotels.com2014,http://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/lou isvi Ile/museum/exhibits/th i rsty-switch-sti 11-qu ivers-art-gi naph i I I ips-2/.
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Figure 3
Fort Dirt Hole, 2013 Gina Phillips
fabric, thread, paint 162" X 330"
Figure 4
Bitter Nest #5: The Homecoming, 1988 Faith Ringgold
Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric 27.5" X 24.75"
Transforming the device into a "free-motion,
thread-drawing machine," Phillips guides lines of
stitching in a motion that resembles painting or
drawing. Through this painterly applique of thread,
she is able to manipulate the formal elements of art
with materials traditionally designated as "craft." As
a result, Phillips releases5
the materials from the
constraints of folk art and ennobles them as a formal
medium. She expands upon the work of artists, such
as Faith Ringgold (Fig. 4) and Judy Chicago (Fig. 5),
who have helped break down boundaries between
art and craft by using fabric and thread.
///n recent years,,
I've been using fabric and thread in a way that attempts to transcend the implicit folksiness/craftiness of the material" 6
5. Phil I ips, 2016, http://ginaphiIIips.org/section/7 4669_Friends_and_Neighbors.html.
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© 2016 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Phillips also evokes these artists through the communal gathering process of
materials. Her New Orleans friends and neighbors often donate to the production of her art,
proving particularly instrumental in growing her collection of fabrics and threads after
Katrina. In this sense, each piece of art she creates is not only reminiscent of a precise
moment in ti me but also of the people in her I ife that helped shape it. The proces� of
rebuilding after Katrina forged a strong connection between Phillips and New Orleans, and
the art she has produced since is indicative of the impact the city and community had on her
identity. Yet traces of her past, such as the repurposing of her grandmother's fabric straps at
the beginning of her art career, are still visible
within the layers of fabric, thread, and paint that
compose her narrative art.
Figure 5
Home Sweet Home from Family, 2000
Judy Chicago
Sprayed acrylic, oil paint, embroidery on linen
24x18in.
5. Phi II ips, 2016, http://ginaphiIIips.org/section/7 4669_Friends_and_Neighbors.html.
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© 2016 Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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2. Sentimental Tooth: Cornstalk, 2011 fabric, thread, ink, paint, oil pastel 42 x 46 inches