A. Aube Designs: Yea, more Devotional Cloth

Artist Statement

Art for me is a very tactile experience. It should engage the viewer in a very physical way. Either a physical sensation created by layers of visual texture within the piece or literal texture i.e. rough felt, soft silk, etc. My ideal show would be one where everything was open and allowed to be touched. I like my work to be ambiguous; I want my viewers to come to their own conclusions about what I’m trying to say. I thrive on the chance that is involved in making a piece; the happy-accident is something that I live for. I also use Irony in my work, all of my “blankets” are completely useless, I love that idea that something which has all these perceived connotations is turned completely around thus shedding light on the object and on the perceptions that our culture takes for granted. For me art is a window into those things which go unseen every day (the mundane), or which our culture does not want to see (the taboo).

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EDUCATION
Bachelors of Arts in Art 2006
SHOWS
Members Exhibition, IGCA, Jan 1st- 31st 2007
100 x 100 Exhibition, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Oct. 28th-Nov. 26th 2006
No Big Heads, University of Alaska, Nov. 1st– 23rd 2006
Stitched Together (solo senior show), Mat-Su College, Oct 10th-18th 2006
Palmer Arts Council Pavilion, August 24th-September 4th. 2006
Fiber Arts Student Showcase, Mat-Su College, November 2005
ORGANIZATIONS
Valley Fiber Arts Guild, 2006-2007
Palmer Arts Council, 2006-2007
International Gallery of Contemporary Art, 2006-2007

Why Fiber Arts?

Some of you might be wondering why I chose something as obscure as Fiber arts, instead of painting or sculpture. One of the things that I like about fiber arts which you cannot get with any other medium, a physical closeness. We as human beings have a close relationship with cloth, so close that we don't even perceive it most of the time. Cloth has been what has allowed us to live in cold climates (like Alaska), and to keep warm at night in the dessert. Every morning we drap ourselves in cloth, and when we go to bed at night. I like the idea of using something so taken for granted. Some of my art work is perceived as being somewhat creepy, this could be because of the closeness people instictually feel towards cloth and the way that I have used it to make them feel some what uncomfortable.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Yea, more Devotional Cloth

This is the first Devoltional cloth that I created. I wrote the Our Father nine times out on this long piece of cloth. Then I layered it together with batting and a piece of naturally dyed indigo cotten. I quilted underneath each of the lines of the Our Father. At the bottom of the piece there are three granny squares. These I got in some of the boxes of fabric from Dave's Grandma, I can only assume that she is the one who had made them. I thought they added a nice touch and fit the feel of the piece that I was going for.

I got the idea for the devotional cloths from these wonderful vests from Africa. The maker had written prayers from the Koran on the vests in order to provide protection for the wearer. I thought that was such a good idea that I thought it would be cool to see how it looked if I translated it into my own more western context. Since then I have been playing with this form and it has become so much more. I has become a way for me to knock down the barrior that we have created in our western culture between nature and religion.