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June Issue 2008
Center for Craft, Creativity &
Design in Hendersonville, NC, Offers Textiles
The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design in Hendersonville, NC, is presenting the exhibition, Inspired Design: Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textiles, an exhibit of both national and international leading artists of innovative textile design, including a variety of computer designed textilae applications, on view through Aug. 22, 2008.
This exhibit features designs and work that represent five 21st Century design growth areas of creative/innovative textiles and digital technologies. These areas are: (1) Smart Textiles (e-textiles) with electronic components woven into textiles; (2) Performance and Interactive textiles receptive and responsive to external stimuli; (3) Textiles for Boutique Clothing - fabric designs for limited-edition boutique clothing; (4) Interior Textiles for furniture, panels, wall-coverings; and (5) Public and Private Textile Commissions.
The digitization of textile production can trace its beginnings to the Jacquard loom invented in 1801 by Joseph Marie Jacquard. Using punch cards that corresponded to one row of the design, this loom is considered to be an important precursor to the development of computer programming. The development of the Jacquard loom allowed intricate patterns to be created that were nearly impossible before due to the time and complexity involved. Modern Jacquard looms are computer controlled, thereby allowing even more complicated and intricate designs with numerous possibilities to occur.
This exhibition explores the possibilities of using computerized Jacquard looms, as well as advanced technology-based dyes and other digital processes incorporated into the fabric. Like computerized Jacquard looms, thermo-chromatic inks are another technological advancement in textile production. Thermo-chromatic inks have the ability to change color in response to a change in temperature. Additionally, artists using intelligent and interactive textiles design cloth with an animated surface that is receptive and responsive to external stimuli.
These artists/designer/artisans bring together both the artistic talent and a scientific frame of mind to create their work. Textile design is a specialized field that involves several sectors - fashion, interior decoration, the production of expressive works, sculptures, and hand-crafted items. It overlaps the fields of art, crafts and design, therefore bridging areas that often seek to separate themselves from one another.
Artists included in this exhibit include: (Smart Textiles) Joanna Berzowska, Assistant Professor of Design and Computation Arts; Rachael Wingfield, MPhil in Textiles, Royal College of Art; and Dr. Zane Berzina, Research Fellow, Constance Howard resource and Research Centre in Textiles, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (Performance and Interactive Textiles) Janis Jeffries, Department of Visual Arts, Goldsmiths College, University of London; Christy Matson, Assistant Professor, Fiber and Material Studies Department; and Barbara Layne, Professor, Concordia University, Studio Arts, Montreal. (Textiles for Boutique Clothing) Tim Parry-Williams, Senior Lecturer, Woven Textiles, Bath School of Art and Design, England; Leslie Armstrong and Anke Fox, Armstrong Fox Textiles woven at the Techonology Innovation Centre, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, Associate Professor, Kansas City Art Institute. (Interior Textiles) Anna Zaharakos, Studio Z, Grand Rapids Michigan; Jennifer Robertson, Canberra, Australia; Isimini Samanidou, University College Falmouth; Hil Driessen, Netherlands; and Catherine Ellis, Fiber Faculty, Haywood Community College. (Public and Private Textile Commissions) Sara Clugage, California College of the Arts; Kari Merete Paulsen, Norway; Pat Mink, Asst. Professor of Art, East Tennessee State University; and Bethanne Knudson, founder of The Jacquard Center, Hendersonville, NC.
Following the premiere of this exhibit in Hendersonville, it will travel to Appalachian State University's Katherine Smith Gallery in Boone, NC, (Sept. 9 - Nov. 14, 2008) and then to Western Carolina University's Museum of Art in Cullowhee, NC, (Jan. 22 - March 8, 2009) offering students, residents and visitors throughout Western North Carolina to experience this unique exhibit.
Complementing this exhibition is an International Textile Conference scheduled for Jan. 8-10, 2009. This conference will present 18 textile artists/designers from UK, Canada, Australia, Norway and the US and will be held in Flat Rock and Hendersonville, NC.
The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design is an inter-institutional center of the University of North Carolina, located 5 miles west of Hendersonville adjacent to the UNC Asheville Kellogg Center. Visitors are invited to walk the Perry N. Rudnick one-mile nature and public art trail following a visit to the exhibition in the Craft Center galleries.
For further info check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Center at 828/890-2050 or visit (www.craftcreativitydesign.org).
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