UArts co-hosts the 2020 China and USA Technology and Innovation in Fiber Art exhibition

December 3, 2020

University of the Arts and Tsinghua University are proud to host the 2020 China and USA Technology and Innovation in Fiber Art exhibition and symposium. The virtual exhibition runs from Nov. 23 through Dec. 24 and features 40 leading contemporary fiber artists from China and the U.S. The exhibition is co-curated and organized by Mi-Kyoung Lee (UArts) and Yue Song (Tsinghua University).

Warren Seelig Oculus
Warren Seelig, “Oculus,” 2010

The exhibition presents a wide range of innovative approaches to textile creation, manipulation and technology, and includes everything from traditional hands-on weaving, sewing and dyeing to film, installation and performance. Its online format allows attendees to view work from all over the globe, including UArts fibers/mixed media professor Warren Seelig’s piece “Oculus,” a site-specific installation currently on view at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. “Oculus” is a 26-foot-long textile made up of hundreds of nylon threads that stretches around the circumference of the room. It is designed to catch light from the ceiling windows to create a moiré effect throughout the day.

Pieces in the exhibition meet at the intersection of fiber and technology, with many artists exploring themes of nature conservancy in an industrial world, preservation and the use of new innovations in traditional crafts. 

Lee’s piece, titled “Yellow Forest,” is a 40-foot by 9-foot sculpture made entirely out of industrial plastic twist ties, knotted together to form a singular structure. Lee says, “‘Yellow Forest’ portrays our contemporary landscape and symbiotic relationship between nature and artificial nature that we experience on a daily basis.”

With “Laced Along Light,” Piper Shepard BFA ’83 (Fibers) explores “the in-between space of the material and immaterial [where] light, shadow, each element and architecture meet.” Shepard created a pattern directly on a wall that is reminiscent of a patterned silk draped over the building.

Mi-Kyoung Lee Yellow Forest
Mi-Kyoung Lee, “Yellow Forest,” 2016
Piper Shepard, “Laced Along Light,” 2012
Piper Shepard, “Laced Along Light,” 2012

 

 

 

Learn more about the 2020 China and USA Technology and Innovation in Fiber Art exhibition.