Threads: Artists Weave their Worlds

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Threads: Artists Weave their Worlds

Dates:

Location:

Shaw Ruddock Gallery
This exhibition brings together work by contemporary artists who incorporate weaving, sewing, quilting, and fabric to explore ideas about gender, identity, memory, and cross-cultural encounters.

Selected Works

an embroidered quilt in rich colors with fancy needlework

Fancy Quilt, 1890–1900, fabric, silk, and velvet, by Esther Emily Leslie. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Gift of Donald E. Hare ’51 and Anne F. Hare, 2019.38

a blue and white fabric segment with geometric designs

Àdìrẹ Eleso cloth, ca. 1956, cotton, thread, indigo dye by an unidentified Yorùbá artist. Gift of Dorothy A. Hassfeld made in memory of the Otun Shoun, Chief N.D. Oyerinde, OBE; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2014.31.19.

a natural color weaved basket with a cover and handle

Mini knitting basket, ca. 1950–1960, ash and sweetgrass by an unidentified Penobscot artist. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Anonymous Gift, 2018.13.35.

 

a paper and fabic collage of rectangles in tones of brown, taupe, and ecru

untitled, ca. 1948–1954, paper and fabric collage by Anne Ryan, American, 1889–1954.  Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bequest of Hilton and Esta Kramer. 2021.73.108.

A brightly colored construction in yellow and greens with writing on the sculpture

The Anthropophagic Effect, Garment no. 3, 2019, mixed media with cotton, brass grommets, nylon thread, artificial sinew, dried pear gourds, glass and plastic beads, nylon ribbon, on canvas by Jeffrey Gibson.  Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, 2021.83

a vertical construction/sculpture with brightly colored fabrics

Towards an ominous time I, 2022, handwoven cloth, natural and synthetic fibers by Sarah Zapata. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Museum Purchase, Laura T. and John H. Halford Jr. Acquisition Fund and the Collectors’ Collaborative, 2022.44

A vertical basket with cover with bold vertical striping in the weave

Permanence, 2023, black ash, cedar bark, birch bark, and synthetic dye by Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy). 19½ x 11¼ x 11¼ inches (49.53 x 28.57 x 28.57 cm). Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Pending Acquisition. © Jeremy Frey. Courtesy of the artist and Karma. 

a rectangular basket with coverf in grey, tan, and sepia

Pasokos (Sturgeon) Basket, 2023, ash, birch bark, sweetgrass, and commercial dye by Theresa Secord (Penobscot).  Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Pending Acquisition. © Theresa Secord. Courtesy of the artist. 

 

About

This exhibition brings together work by contemporary artists who incorporate weaving, sewing, quilting, and fabric to explore ideas about gender, identity, memory, and cross-cultural encounters. The works on view span a variety of mediums, including quilts, basketry, sculpture, tapestry, and painting, allowing their makers to weave powerful and intimate stories about their identities, experiences, and the worlds they inhabit.

The exhibition is supported by the Karl R. Philbrick Art Museum Fund, Bowdoin College.

Read the exhibition labels here.

 

Programming

Artist's Talk with Theresa Secord
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center, Bowdoin College
November 2, 2023

 

Enjoy this recording of an Artist’s Talk with Theresa Secord

Theresa Secord is a traditional Penobscot basket maker and the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. She speaks about her new woven series inspired by climate change, including a new piece commissioned by the Museum and included in the exhibition Threads: Artists Weave their Worlds.

Presented by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Recorded on November 2, 2023 at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.