THE SUPPLE LINE

Textiles, Yarn and Thread as Universal Language

The use of thread is universal, historical, and continual. We are all touched by threads, literally and figuratively, from the moment we are born and wrapped in a blanket until we are buried in fabric or die wearing it.

Sheila Hicks is my inspiration for this exhibit. She has been working with threads and fibers her entire life, and has elevated textile-based works (along with others, many Bauhaus affiliated) to high art. Educated at Yale where she studied under Josef Albers, she met his weaving artist wife, Anni Albers, and her eyes widened, especially regarding form. Her career exploded and she has never looked back. She currently has a Solo Exhibit in Japan and has shown with countless galleries and museums. She lives in France, is 95 years of age, and continues her textile-based work as we speak.

Her aim was to find and use a material that could cross cultural, racial and geographical divisions. She found it in thread, and calls it a “universal language, channel, system . . . way.” Her threads on a loom are in tension; off the loom they become liberated which takes the plane into space and makes sculpture. Her use of color unifies the work further, and then, through form and scale, she makes work that is immense and utterly significant.

I have chosen the pieces for this show because they continue this universal language. Each of these artists uses thread, yarn, fabric and a variety of textiles in interesting and meaningful ways. Whether they are trying to or not, they are following in the footsteps of giants like Anni Albers and Sheila Hicks.

-Stephanie Hargrave