Flora, Fauna & Entrails

I'm excited to announce the inaugural exhibit of my Fiber Forms collection and work here in our new home state of Louisiana. The family and I will be attending the opening this weekend so if you're in the New Orleans area please stop by, take a gander at all the fiber art and say hello!

Fabric and thread are inextricably bound to our everyday lives. Flora, Fauna, and Entrails brings together artists using fibers in their practice to explore the beauty and fragility of the nature around them. Flora, Fauna, and Entrails is Antenna’s fourth exhibition exploring the work of artists that expand on the potential of fiber in contemporary art practices while still being steeped in craft traditions.

 Antenna presents:
Flora, Fauna, and Entrails
 3718 St. Claude St, New Orleans
On view: April 8 – May 7, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday April 8, 6-10pm
Daily hours: Tuesday through Sunday 12-5 

Featuring artists: Linda Beach, Raina Benoit, Raluca Iancu, Gina Phillips, and Suzanna Scott.

lee mis laVios

A grouping of twenty Coin Cunts is in Mexico City for their international debut in the exhibition lee mis laVios. This clever show title is a play on words meaning 'read my lips' with the capital letter 'V' symbolizing the vulva/vagina.

The exhibition, lee mis laVios, chooses to undress the vagina from its prejudices, fetishes and desires, aiming for the acceptance of its sexual naturalization.

Throughout traditional art history the vagina has been systematically excluded, its representations either fade under a translucent veil or are replaced by a sexless pubis. This absence of detail has transformed it into an obscene and indiscreet symbol.

The gesture of symbolizing the vagina becomes an excuse to avoid it. Masculine gaze has constructed a specific imagery around it, based on simultaneous desire-censorship and summing it up through fertility symbols, objects of desire or immoral impurities. Its materialization is either morbid or symbolic. Indeed, vaginas have lost their right to (re)present themselves.

Lee mis laVios unveils the vagina from its prejudices in order to confront it as it is. By analyzing its allegorical connections we deconstruct the structure that surrounds it.

Read my lips: a vagina is more than anything, a vagina. It does not require any validation by dignifying it through symbols. The vagina exists as it is, dignified and worthy of its being. Now it's time to make this evident. 

lee mis laVios

31 de Marzo - 14 de Abril

Ex Iglesia de Corpus Christi

Mexico City, Mexico

Participating artists include Jamie Martinez, Maisie Cousins, Suzanna Scott, Rosa Borras, Sara Lorusso and Los Ninxs.

Playing With Scissors

Thought I'd share a few images of my Bound Scissors out in the wild. Playing with scissors is a safe activity as long as they're bound and stitched up tight! I'm pleased that this interactive piece has now been exhibited in three venues, a year ago in Touch: Interactive Craft, this past January in Material As Medium, and this weekend as part of Play, an all media exhibition at the SAA Collective in Springfield, Illinois. 

The exhibition Play was juried by Bob Dixon, an ceramicist and retired professor from Benedictine University. Play is the spontaneous, unstructured time found to foster creativity and problem-solving skills. As we grow up we tend to trivialize play and relegate it to childhood, but it’s an important element of life at any age. The exhibit features work not only about play in the traditional sense, but also the idea of being in the moment, of inspiring wonder, of invoking your natural curiosity. The viewers are encouraged to interact and play with many of the pieces on exhibit.

PLAY: All Media Exhibition

SAA Collective / H.D. Smith Gallery / Springfield, IL

March 10 - 31, 2017 

Opening reception March 11 / 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Participating artists: Bruce Alves, Lex Archibald, Piety Choi, Betsy Dollar, Lauren Feret, Cathy Ganschinietz, John Hayes, Tessa Martinez, Corrin Smithson McWhirter, Beth Rodgers, Suzanna Scott

Thank you to all of you who've shared your images of Bound Scissors via social media. #boundscissorproject

 

Image by Adele Stuckey

Image by Leslie Mounaime

Image by Katie Riggs

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Duality of Feminine

My grouping of red (and a few purple) Coin Cunts will be on view during the month of March at Gallery 66 NY in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition, Duality of Feminine and Feminist, was juried by artist/curator Karen Gutfreund. These are some of the questions the artists were asked to ponder:

Endless news cycles emphasize the fragmentary nature of our present society and a divided nations’ opposition to a single logic or subject. With this in mind, how do women balance the duality of feminine and feminist? Should we be concerned with the manner in which a woman is portrayed as strong and/or feminine? In recent cultural movements, the ramifications of mixed gender attributes seemed to be growing in popularity yet with the recent elections and threats to women’s rights in particular, are we going backwards. This ability to carry the strengths of both genders is empowering but are we now dealing with a backlash? Is the current political atmosphere an attempt to return to the stereotypical view of women as submissive and passive?

Artworks in the Duality of Feminine and Feminist exhibit are varied with works on paper, glass, collage, porcelain, photography, painting, fabric, assemblage, appropriated imagery and mixed media, with messages just as varied.  The artists participating in this exhibit are from across the nation and include works by Torey Akers, Audrey Bernstein, Sarah Eagen, Sally Edelstein, Leslie Fandrich, Morgan Ford Willingham, Colleen Gahrmann, Lucy Julia Hale, Amy Hughes, Marie-Laure Ilie, Blond Jenny, Joan Lesikin, Lisa Levart, Sally Ann McKinsey Sisk, Jillian Nalty, Landon Newton, Antonella Piemontese, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Suzanna Scott, Samantha Senack, Rosalind Shaffer, Allegra Shunk, Susan Singer, Dafna Steinberg, Gail Stouffer, Terrill Warrenburg, Jennifer Weigel, Galelyn Williams and Meghan Willis.

 Duality of Feminine and Feminist
Gallery 66 NY / Cold Spring, NY
March 3rd – April 2nd
Opening reception, March 3rd 6-9pm

Common Chaos

Common chaos. Knots of life. Little irritants. Sometimes things don't go very smoothly or the way you planned. You gotta pause and work out the kinks. 

Material as Medium

I'm pleased to have two fiber works included in Material as Medium at the Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. My tactile collection of Bound Scissors and recent wall sculpture, Lifeline will be on display along with the work of fifteen other fiber artists. The exhibition explores the future of contemporary fiber and textile art using traditional materials in a new context, or unconventional materials in a more traditional form. The juror for this exhibition is Aaron McIntosh.

Material as Medium

Torpedo Factory / Target Gallery

December 3, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Reception: Thursday, December 8th, 6 – 8pm / Juror Talk at 7pm

Participating fiber artists:

Meg Arsenovic, Richmond, VA

Emma Balder, Denver, CO

Diana Baumbach, Laramie, WY

Arisa Brown, Everett, WA

Danielle Burke, Black Mountain, NC

Brooks Dierdorff, Orlando, FL

Julia Gartrell, Durham, NC

Lindsay Hall, Arlington, VA

Krista Heinitz, Eugene, OR

Hannah Hiaasen, Brooklyn, NY

Kathleen Kennedy, Mechanicsville, VA

Tiffany Lange, Menomonie, WI

Matthew Paulson, Rockaway Beach, NY

Suzanna Scott, Ruston, LA

Meaghan Westfall, Rock Hill, SC

Katie Westmoreland, Brooklyn, NY

New Print

In light of recent political events here in the United States my series of 'Coin Cunts' has continued to gain interest and raise awareness of women's issues on many different fronts. I am continuing to seek out used kisslock coin purses with colorful and/or interesting interiors to grow the collection. As of its last installation this past summer it numbered over 100 pieces! 

This image is now available as a limited edition, poster-sized pigment print in my webshop. Its proceeds will be used to fund the growth of this project and its exhibition. You can purchase the new print here.

Layers Of Life

Layers of life are built of time, memory and experiences both significant and insignificant. Oftentimes it is those negligible things that spring to our consciousness time and again. Simple gestures are the found objects of life we hold onto for reasons we cannot explain. We are cocooned in these layers. We are bound by them. Our lives are like surprise balls with hidden treasures fossilized in its strata. Some are happy, some are sad, we share snippets with others as we meet and greet. Acquaintances grow into friendships. We mine their treasures as we share our own. We communicate and we connect. This is the sediment of life. It makes us vulnerable.

Shafts & Glands

An evolution of glandular shapes and biomorphic shafts, this family of Fiber Forms has been reproducing, and I've added several new ones to the website. 

I am thinking of the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and throughout the natural world. A tangle of coital life, I explore the animate and inanimate alike--whether ovaries, stamens, mammary glands or ancient fertility fetishes, modern sex toys and contraceptive devices. 

Through these forms I seek to meld the visual pleasures of knots and knobs with the endless labyrinth of time and sensual memory through repetitive twisting, wrapping and stitching. 

Read more about the process of creating these Fiber Forms.

A Lifeline

A year and a half ago, soon after I turned 40, I gifted myself a sabbatical to explore a new direction in my work. One of the first projects I tackled was to fabricate a sculpture out of an antique quilt top that I'd been holding onto for years with this purpose in mind. The slow evolution of this unfinished quilt has been a learning process for me with many stops and starts.

First, I created a simple drop pattern and proceeded to cut up the entire quilt. The drops were stitched together and stuffed inside-out so the hand-pieced, textured surface would be visible. Ironically the quilt lent me 42 drops--the age I will be turning in a few months.

In order to unify the forms and emphasize their texture without the distraction of a country craft palette each one was painted with black gesso. The gesso transformed the drops from a soft pillow form into a calcified cocoon. After painting, I sanded and stitched the pods to re-emphasize the lines and textures of the original quilted surface. The final surface was fused with a layer of wax lending a skin-like smoothness to these seemingly rough forms.

Through each step this work has pushed and pulled me along. The process was much more involved than I could have predicted at the outset. Nevertheless, I'm glad I keep pulling it back out to puzzle out each step of its transformation. It is a quilt no longer. The 42 drops have been bound tightly to a spine of sorts. I arranged them onto an old lead rope using the measurements of my own torso. For whatever this is, I call it a Lifeline.

Pink Palette

In need of a wider variety of peachy-pink material for my series of Fiber Forms and other studio experiments, I've turned to an unlikely source--avocado pits. After searching online for what natural dyes would lend my desired palette I came across this recipe and proceeded to buy/eat avocados for weeks. Unfortunately I'm the only one in the family who likes them so I collected them in the freezer til I had enough to make a full dye pot. I boiled eight pits for this batch of old linen scraps, stained cotton doilies and cheese cloth. The aged whites and creams were transformed into a subtle palette of the fleshy pink textures. I was more than pleased with the outcome and have already started stitching with my new stash.

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Aug 16, 2016 at 9:11am PDT

Fiber Options

Cheese Box of Vulvas by Susan Hensel and Plexus by Suzanna Scott

I'm pleased to share that one of my fiber pieces, Plexus, is included in the exhibition Fiber Options: Material Explorations at the Maryland Federation of the Arts Circle Gallery. The show is comprised of seventy-two works using fiber in varied range of material and application. It is a wonderful collection of contemporary fiber works.

Fiber Options: Material Explorations

MFA Circle Gallery

Annapolis, Maryland

July 14 - August 6

Opening Reception: July 24th, 3-5 pm

 

Getting To Quiet by Laurie LeBreton

From hand-knit pieces felted into sculptural monuments to video monitors shrouded in hooded sweatshirts, the options in fiber are limitless. Combining an array of materials, both traditional and unexpected, with historic to digital techniques, the artists of Fiber Options: Material Exploration exhibit artistry, innovation, and emotion. Precisely pieced quilts, meticulously knotted vessels, and delicately dyed silks are a few examples of the supreme skill and dexterity employed over countless hours by these artists. Oftentimes, several skills appear in a singular piece: stitched still lifes on hand-dyed cotton or fabric and thread encased in encaustic, all demonstrate supreme artistry.

Innovation commingles with tradition in a quilt deliberately severed into quadrants or sweetly stitched flowers paired with a expertly embroidered dead cockroach. Several artists reinvent conventional notions of fiber art by including unexpected materials. Typewriter ribbon and VHS cassette tape replace wool and linen in woven constructions. Fiber is no longer precious with roofing nails driven into silk and sticks set afire dangerously near hand-painted ropes. Technological advances provide artists with the ability to print on fabrics and digitize embroidery, opening up new options in the world of fiber.

Beyond the tangible, emotion and character can be observed in the stab of the needle, throw of the weaving shuttle, submersion of fabric into dye, and sometimes, sorrow and devastation literally spill forth onto the floor. Steadfast resolve surfaces in a hyper-realistic embroidered black eye while vulnerability lingers in a threadbare cloth. Clothing carries deep-rooted symbolism—a hooded sweatshirt, a bridal veil, a Hijab—and immediately conjure a range of emotions and viewpoints.

Fiber speaks to us in so many ways. It can be intricately detailed or all encompassing, traditionally constructed or surprisingly innovative, intimately displayed or globally outspoken. The options in fiber are endless.

Susanna Fields-Kuehl, juror

Big Flower by Lisa Marie Barber

Coin Cunt Print

The 'Coin Cunt' project began innocently last summer when I was playing around with an old coin purse. I flipped it inside out, and saw a vaginal form emerge from my playful pinching and tucking. Using a needle and thread I stitched it into place. As I thought about it, I found so much association between the little pocket-like forms and the inferred suggestions that these new objects brought to mind.

I began sharing the 'Coin Cunts' on social media and am amazed at the feedback it has provided. With a simple alteration these ubiquitous objects became evocative and their appeal provocative when I dubbed them 'Coin Cunts'. Aside from the chuckles, I've found that others can see in this project our assumed cultural associations of money and women, prostitution, female genital mutilation, suppression of women, gender equality, body image ideals, equal pay and the list continues to grow.

Ever since the 'Coin Cunt' images began making their rounds on social media I've had to turn down numerous purchase requests. My goal with this project is to grow the collection until I have a large installation of 100 or more. In order finance the rest of this project and give you an opportunity to enjoy this image on a daily basis I'm offering a limited edition of 25 pigment prints on my website.

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on May 24, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

Crazy Quilts

Last summer I picked up a pile of unfinished crazy quilt squares at the flea market. A bit musty and stained, they'd definitely seen a few idle decades. I decided to emphasize the aged backsides of these patchwork squares by carefully slicing into them to expose their insides. The coloring on the reverse is subtle; stains are visible, and you can trace the map-like stitches where each piece has been quilted. Each scar that I add is carefully marked, cut and stitched into place with black thread. Fresh wounds are now scattered among the hints of stitches left by another pair of laboring hands years ago.

The Female Complex

My Coin Cunt collection has taken on a life of its own thanks to the wonders of social media. I've been invited by artist, Kristin Mahan to participate in The Female Complex at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where these twenty-eight fiber pieces will be making their debut. The vaginal shaped works are sculpted from inside-out coin purses.

Feminism is nothing new-it has been around for more than a century-so why is it still so important to this day? As society progresses and the older waves of feminism accomplish much of what they set out to do, problems that were always there but never dealt with have begun to rise to the surface. "The Female Complex" will present the multiplicity of the emerging wave of feminism through contemporary art. Each of the 12 artists presented uses personal experiences to inform their work, which allows the work to be honest. The wide variety of mediums and subject matter in this exhibition will form a dialogue that reflects the diversity of issues placed under the umbrella of this developing feminist movement. 

Kristin Mahan, curator

Participating artists include Samantha Aasen, Brooke Denton, Jeanne Donegan, Tessa Edgren, Lisa Guevara, Sheree Haynie, Katie Hovencamp, Kayla Linden, Roberta Malkin, Sidney Mullis, Claudia Rose, and Suzanna Scott. 

The Female Complex

Curated by Kristin Mahan

MEDICI Gallery / Richards Hall

Monday, April 18

Closing Reception April 22 / 5-7 pm

Ignoble In Between

Six of my Fiber Forms were selected by artist Mandy Cano Villalobos to be included in an exhibition at a SiTE:LAB event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The exhibit, Ignoble in Between is based upon the mundane gaps that occupy the space between when we are born and when we die, the exhibition exploring the idea of beauty as a by-product of happenstance.

Though we long for the heroic, for our friends and followers to “like” (or heart) our significant contributions to internet society, though we yearn for some sort of affirmation that we really matter within the larger context, it is everyday tedium that dominates our time. Our days are filled with to-do lists, dirty clothes, longings that will never be fulfilled, and bad breath. The artists of Ignoble in Between embrace the mundane passage of time, reveling in transient thoughts and physical decay, with happenstantially beautiful results.

Mandy Cano Villalobos, curator

Ignoble in Between will feature the work of nine artists and is one of six simultaneous exhibits in the unique setting of abandoned auto shop garage bays. The Auto Shop shows are part of a larger joint venture, called the Rumsey Street Project, between the volunteer art organization known as SiTE:LAB and Habitat for Humanity which finds under-utilized buildings and transforms them into art projects.

Ignoble in Between 
Curated by Mandy Cano Villalobos 

Carlos Aceves, Erin Curry, Molly Kaderka, Andy Kincaid, 
Billy Mayer, Dennis Ritter, Suzanna Scott, Soo Shin, Danielle Wyckoff

SiTE:LAB Auto Shop 

333 Rumsey St SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Saturday, April 9th, 12-9pm

New Work

Scions, aluminum, plaster, resin, metal coating, wax

Glandular shapes clustered together in various mediums. Hanging and protruding from an old paint grate and leather bandolier my observation of the drop form continues. New work on my website this week.

Festooned, metal grate, paint, vinyl, wool, beads

Residue, leather, artificial sinew, encaustic wax
 

Draw The Line

There are 1,865 tally marks embroidered onto this light blue cotton square. I'm mailing it off today to join with others in speaking out for the reproductive rights of women. Please join us!

On March 2nd, 2016, the United States Supreme Court will hear the most important reproductive rights case in almost 25 years. The decision will determine whether Texas can shut down nearly all abortion care providers in the state and prevent 5.4 million women of reproductive age from accessing the healthcare they need.

Using craft as activism, artist Chi Nguyen—in partnership with the Textile Arts Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights—is holding a series of stitch-ins to make physical the number of women whose right to safe and legal abortion is currently at risk. With each line representing an individual woman, the 5.4 Million and Counting project is only finished when all 5.4 million lines are embroidered.

The public is invited to Draw the Line by joining the embroidery process at the stitch-ins, or by sending in their own 10×10” swatches with as many tally marks (卌) as they would like to embroider. All swatches will be patched onto a larger quilt to be used at the Supreme Court rally on March 2nd, 2016.

If you cannot join the public stitch-ins but would like to participate, please follow the directions below. We cannot accomplish this project without you.

• You can use a 10x10 inch swatch in any material and color. A contrasting thread color is important to ensure that your tallies are invisible.

• Once finished, indicate the number of lines you have embroidered on a notecard. Please write your name on the same card if you would like to be acknowledged by the project.

• Send all materials to:

Kelly Valletta, 5.4 Million and Counting Project
Textile Arts Center
505 Carroll St
Brooklyn NY 11215

A video posted by Textile Arts Center (@textileartscenter) on Feb 9, 2016 at 1:51pm PST

Fiber Forms

A collection of fiber forms has been slowly evolving in my studio. The core of each one is made using a common household material--aluminum foil. Once the skeleton is constructed I wrap it with layer upon layer of fabric, lace and string. These bound layers are pinned into place until I'm satisfied with its shape, color and texture. During the tedious process of stitching I let go of time and enjoy the meditative process of slowly marking the surface with stitches and securing the layers of each cocoon. On a few of the pieces I've sculpted glandular caps out of resin. After they are finished with a brass metal coating these accents add visual contrast to the stitched surface. So far I've completed thirteen of these intimate fiber forms and I invite you to take a peek.