Category Archives: Sewing

Lisa Lackey: Always A Maker

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TSGNY: How do you describe your technique?

Lisa Lackey: I refer to my work as textile paintings. Fabric and thread replace the medium of paint on a canvas.

"The Conversation 5/6," 20" x 16", fabric, thread and acetate on canvas, 2014

TSGNY: Is this a recent development in your way of working?

LL: It’s been a gradual evolution. From my earliest memories, I’ve always been a maker.  I am always making something. Starting in my high school years, I began learning how to work in practically every medium, as I explored to find where my passion lay. That exploration and learning of processes made me a versatile art teacher — my profession for the last 18 years. But it wasn’t until I returned a few years ago, full circle, to my childhood love for sewing that my work found its genre.

"In the Shadows 5," 30" x 24", fabric and thread on canvas, 2015

TSGNY: Does working in thread enable you to do things you were not able to do in other media, like painting?

LL: I’ve never been a painter. I tried it along the way and was never enamored with it.  What I’ve always loved to do is sew and piece things together. There was a time when I made all my own clothes, and even had a business designing and manufacturing a line of women’s clothing. About three years ago I kind of stumbled onto collaging fabric and using hand and machine stitching to develop the details of the image.  When that happened it was like a light bulb went off.  All my artistic “parts” finally coalesced into an art form that spoke to me.

“The Conversation 4,” 20” x 16”, fabric, thread and acetate on canvas, 2014

LL: I bring to my current work everything I’ve learned from working in other media. Taken directly from photographs, my images are about the culmination of everything compositional: depth of plane, color, pattern, texture, and positive/negative spaces while witnessing, capturing, and recording unadulterated and universal moments in time.

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“Sister’s Foot,” 14” x 11”, fabric and thread on canvas, 2015

TSGNY : Does working in thread pose challenges you didn’t face when working in other media ?

LL: The biggest challenge in my work is size: both small and large scale. If the image is too small, the fabric pieces disintegrate under the pick of the needle.  And if the work is too large, it no longer fits under my sewing machine because of the stiffness the canvas creates.

“Selfie 103115,” 16” x 12”, fabric and thread on canvas, 2015

LL: Stretching the work for hand-sewing was another challenge I had to overcome.  The thickness of my work prevents it from being put into an embroidery hoop or wrapped around a quilt frame.  To solve this dilemma, I ended up developing my own stretching frame, inspired by frames used to stretch drying animal skins.  I lash my canvases to a wooden stretcher frame using a series of buttons and drilled holes. This gives me the tension I need to do the hand embroidery without the work becoming crumpled and distorted.

"Skin Frame Detail," 18" x 18", embroidery thread on canvas, 2015

LL: I like the stiffness of canvas, the white of the gesso and the texture.  It helps me keep the work flat and undistorted even after much sewing. I love the graphic quality of a flat solid plane of color and abhor when bubbling occurs on any large area of fabric. Although I fuse the fabric down, I machine-sew each of the fabric edges down for extra stability and because I like the way the outline looks.   When a piece is too big, I run the risk of it delaminating after being curled and re-curled to fit under the sewing machine’s foot. I am currently working on a piece that will finish at 36” square, a size I have never attempted before and am not sure how I will accomplish.  It will definitely stretch my process to a new level and probably add a few more gray hairs to my head!

“Sisters: The Other Feet,” 11” x 14” fabric and thread on canvas, 2015

TSGNY: Who inspires you?

LL: I love the work of Alex Katz, Chuck Close and Georgia O’Keefe. Among current artists, the sewn portraits and recent paintings of the verso images by Cayce Zavaglia are amazing.  When I saw one of her portraits in person for the first time, I was struck by how small it was. Its scale creates an intimate almost private experience with the viewer.  Then she turned them around and showed us the backs, or “verso” as she calls them.  Her latest work is a return to her painting roots, where she is painting those verso images on enormous canvases, thread by stunning thread.

My most recent influence is an artist I stumbled onto by chance: Lori Larusso. Her paintings have a wonderfully simplified, bold graphic quality that I love. At first glance, they actually tricked me into thinking they were fabric, and not acrylic paint at all. In some of the pieces, like those in the series “It’s not my Birthday,” it almost feels like you could lift each color and peel it away as if it were tactile.

TSGNY: Thank you, Lisa. You can see more of Lisa’s work on her website and in her book, The Composition of Family.

Hyunju Kim: NUBIGi–Time Resides In It

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TSGNY: What is your fiber technique and what are your primary materials?

Hyunju Kim: I use a sewing machine. My main material is thread. I also use cotton, fabrics, uniforms, and stockings. For the past three or four years I have been using recycled fabrics and materials for my art.

TSGNY: What are the origins of your current body of work?

HK:  Drawing was always a big part of my childhood. I spent my days drawing whenever my mother was working. As I began to realize how my mother’s absence affected my childhood, the drawing I was working on at the time caught my attention. Every dot on the piece of paper began to look like the stitches made by a sewing machine. Each dot and each stitch represented the flow of time. This marked the beginning of my work.

"NUBIGi 080" (2008), 90" x 72", sewing on cloth.

HK: My search for identity around the sewing machine established the ground for my creative work. Through my artwork, I am reviving thirty years, if not more, that my mother spent at her sewing machine. The sewing machine was her means of earning a living, but it was both a playground and resting place for me. This reflection on my mother’s sewing is the raw material for my work, and  the process of recording and expressing that carries a very special meaning. Sewing is a repetitive action that has therapeutic effects on me. As I sew on the sewing machine, I remember my mother and enter my own world.  There’s a certain irony, because sewing is how my mother earned her living, and I am making it into an art.

TSGNY: What kind of artwork were you doing before you started working primarily with a sewing machine?

HK: Before I used the sewing machine, I painted and did collages. When I started to use threads, I focused on the space between the thread and canvas. It was close to minimal.

"NUBIGi 080" (back)

TSGNY: Can you explain what you mean by focusing on the space between the thread and the canvas?

HK: I would cover a canvas with white cloth and grab some areas of the white cloth and twist them. Then I would wrap white threads around them, and all around the canvas. Because I wrapped the white thread around those areas, there would be some space between the thread and the canvas. When in contact with light, the thread would cast shadows on the canvas, creating more lines.

"NUBIGi 083" (2008), 102 "☓76 ", sewing on birodo (similar to velvet).

TSGNY: How and why did your work evolve from these minimal pieces?
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HK: When I was just using threads, I did not make any images on the canvas. I chose modern, simple colors like white or black. When I researched other artists who use threads and sewing machines in their work, most of their work was simple. So I thought I should create something to differentiate my art style from theirs. I started to draw faces that represented human emotions. It was more fun to do.

"Nubigi 083" (back)

TSGNY: Does drawing with the sewing machine pose any particular challenges?

HK: Because the process is very mechanical, it is very difficult to make my work look natural. I want to make my work look like a painting, so I try to look at many pictures to make it as life-like as possible. I also do a lot of sketches with different materials: crayons, paint, or colored pencils. When I draw something, I try to imagine each stroke or line as a thread. So the colored pencil is like the needle with the thread.  When I begin new artwork, I choose the colors and compose the image on the canvas. I like to make sketches by hand, imagining how the threads would be sewn on the canvas. Sometimes, when I draw sketches by hand, I learn new ways to draw and interpret the lines. Drawing by hand allows free movement compared to a sewing machine. It helps me develop different styles and techniques.

"NUBIGi 085" (2009), 16 "☓19 ", sewing on birodo (similar to velvet).

TSGNY: Did working with the sewing machine change your artistic intent?

HK: My intent has not changed. The main focus of my art is not the drawing itself. My main focus is time. All of the titles of my work include the term “Nubigi” and a number. The numbers just state the order of my work. Nubigi means sewing in Korean. Each thread is a symbol of time. If a thread changes in color over time, it goes to show that time still resides in it.

"NUBIGi 091" (2014), 27" x 27", sewing on cloth.

TSGNY: Finally, are there any artists who inspire you who you feel we should know about?

HK: There are two artists whom I particularly admire. The first is Francis Bacon, the Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, raw imagery of human emotions. His work always gives me ideas about how I should develop my techniques. The second is Kim Sooja, who was born in South Korea. Her work includes videos and installations. She is known for using traditional Korean scarves in her performances.

"NUBIGi 093," (2014), 11.75” x 11.75”, sewing on cloth.

TSGNY: Thank you, Hyunju. You can see more of Hyunju’s work here.

Gulia Huber: States of Human Presence

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TSGNY: Your work is not clothing in the traditional sense, but it clearly refers to clothing. How did you embark on this body of work?

Gulia Huber: During my graduate studies in art school at Penn State, the professor asked me to draw on skills that came from my personal life experience. I had worked as a costume designer in theater and film and as a clothing designer, so working with fabric, designing, drawing, making patterns, sewing and embroidering were familiar skills for me. I started by creating “Harness” out of rawhide, using materials and techniques that are usually applied to the craft of saddle-making. I cut a single piece of rawhide into many leather bands and connected them with grommets and buckles to make two human harnesses for a male and a female body.

"Harness" (2005); leather, metal accessories.

GH: In “Harness,” soft leather presents an idea about a human body and skin.  I used leather not only because of its look and texture but also because of its smell and capacity to change over time, to engage the viewer’s senses on multiple levels beyond the visual. “Harness” was a starting point for me; I wanted to explore these ideas, as well as to work with other soft materials. After working with leather I turned to flat sheets of rubber.

"Rubber Jackets" (2005), rubber, metal, polyester filler.

GH: Everyone relates to clothing on different levels, through touch, look, smell, and sound. “Rubber Jackets” is similar to “Harness” because it also affects the viewer’s perception through more than his/her visual sense.

TSGNY: What kind of artwork were you doing before “Harness” started you on this path?

GH: Before I started to explore the subject of human body and its boundaries through textiles, I was working with sculptural materials like plaster, wood, stone, and found objects.  I used carving, shaping, and molding to create  abstract representations of the human body. For my performances I used found objects like caution tape, iron bells, trunks and branches of old trees that had been cut down, and used them in the context of my subjective views about how we deal with obstacles and how our actions are driven by cultural influences.

TSGNY: Did switching from these materials to textiles change your intent?

GH: By purposely choosing a limited number of materials and processes for my works  that have long been classified as women’s crafts, I can express my feelings about accepted restrictive norms on women’s rights and freedoms. My work addresses issues of the gendered territories that are characteristic of every cultural system. Having been brought up on the intersection between Western and Eastern cultures, I experienced a variety of cultural norms that place women in the position of an object.

"Parachute" (2007); polyester fabric, accessories.

GH: I ask viewers to probe the questions: How far do we extend our personal boundaries? When does the destructive violation of the personal boundaries begin? What should one give up to retain personal freedom?

“Veil,” (2007); polyester fabrics, wire.

GH: In “Veil” I embroidered fabric with wire and then gently pressed this “ wired” textured fabric against my face, revealing a relief of my face as a part of this veil, commenting on women’s rights and cultural boundaries. As I began to explore these restrictive forces, and the changeable nature of boundaries posed by society, by culture and the inner self, I found that clothing can be a powerful metaphor for a human being, capable of standing in for a real person.  I began using sewing, knitting, and embroidery to create sculptural clothing or pieces of clothing that could embody emotional states of human presence.

“Red. Grace.” (2008) Performance, cotton, sand, foam board.

GH: I bring together different media such as video, performance, photography, and sound, but I continue to work with textiles and use the form of clothing because clothing defines our sexuality, reflects the world through which we define ourselves, contains an imprint of the private space that we create around ourselves, and also exposes a public space that we are immersed in.

“Yurt” (2008); cotton fabric, embroidery thread, rope, video projection.

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GH: My works refer to the body as an energy entity that is enclosed in layers of skin, clothing, building, air, and nature. I like to utilize light, height and the spaciousness of the room. And, like in any installation, the viewer is invited to be the part of the artwork. In “Yurt,” I created a structure similar to a nomadic yurt.  Inside the yurt, a shirt hangs on a hanger on the wall.  The white shirt is cut open in the middle, in the shape of a square from which a band embroidered with unreadable words falls on the floor, covering a video projection of a pit. Different cultural artifacts are thrown down the pit one by one.

TSGNY: The scale of your work is often very ambitious. Does your self-imposed limitation of techniques pose any particular challenges?

GH: In some way every work is a challenge for me. The works made out of leather and rubber led me to take the next challenging step: finding a visual solution to representing movement in space using simple fabrics bought in WalMart. When I start working on a project I have to think about how to transform a very simple piece of cotton or polyester fabric in a minimalist way to represent the idea I have in mind without violating the fabric’s own natural appeal.  I also pose a challenge to myself to use only two techniques — sewing and embroidery. For “Boots” I used only cotton quilted lining fabric.

"Boots" (2006): quilted cotton lining fabric.

GH: For “Table for Two” I challenged myself to create a glowing sensation of a table dinner setting using only vinyl. The sewn vinyl table cloth and a dinner setting for two are attached in one solid piece, glowing with light, signifying absence and presence at the same time.

"Table for Two" (2007); vinyl, light box, wooden table and chairs.

GH: Other challenges I’ve purposely posed for myself include sewing with wire in “Veil” and embroidering with human hair in “I Love, I Hate, I Need, I Protest.”

“I Love, I Hate, I Need, I Protest” (2005); cotton fabric, human hair, hangers.

GH: In “I Love, I Hate, I Need, I Protest,” I embroidered the words using human hair in order to emphasize the innately human nature of these statements. These are inborn desires, just as natural as our skin or hair.  I’ve also challenged myself to embroider while being completely covered by a black bag in “Trespassing”; and even to sew and burn a dress while performing.   In “Fire Dance” I danced with my very long, very wide dress on fire, while the photographer took over 300 photographs. It was a well planned performance, so nobody was hurt. As you can see, to me there are no limits in using textiles.

TSGNY: If you feel that the expressive capacity of textiles is unlimited, do you also feel that working with textiles enables you to do things you had not been able to do in any other medium?

GH:  Working with textiles made me realized how far I could push boundaries. I’ve used my own body as part of the process of art making. I’ve asked myself the question: “How would I feel if sewing is the only action I can take speaking about my body?” In “Trespassing,” I created a series of pieces that explored the process of constructing an identity within cultural norms, restrictions, and gendered territories.

“Trespassing” (2008); performance, polyester fabric, embroidery thread.

GH:  I created this performance in the context of women’s rights. Viewers witnessed my gradual “appearance” through the means of embroidery. I would come out hidden under a huge bag that I had sewed out of silky fabric in dark night-sky blue. At the beginning of this performance the viewers couldn’t know who was under this formless bag. Then I began embroidering the outline of my body with the gold thread. Within 20 minutes they could see that I was expressing myself even though I was under the bag. I used video as a tool to document my performance, altering the viewing time: in real time it took 20 minutes to complete this performance, but the video is five minutes long.

TSGNY:  Finally, are there any living artists who inspire you who you feel we should know about but may not have heard of?

GH: I’m fascinated by the variety of artists who aspire to bring textiles to the front of fine art and to make it stand on its own alongside other less perishable media. Many artists, like Yinka Shonibare, explore their ideas through clothing. The ideas relating to the phenomenology of the body, particularly physicality of the feminine body,  in the works of Ann Hamilton, Mona Hatoum and Jana Sterbak, influenced me to incorporate sensory experiences in my sculptural works. The artworks of Beverly Semmes and Lucy Orta focus on portraying a social dimension of the space that body occupies. The artworks of Do Ho Suh and Nick Cave explore cultural dimensions in relation to the body.

TSGNY: Thank you, Gulia. You can see more of Gulia’s work on her website; and you can learn more about her company, PELAGOZ, which designs ergonomic clothing to help children with educational needs here.