If you've been to the Southampton Arts Center in the last few weeks or so, it would have been necessary to walk through the site-specific installation "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space." If you happen to be a frequent visitor (or even a returning one), the installation would have materialized in front of your eyes.
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A detail of the installation-in-process, "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Installation remains on view through April 14, 2019. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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This Sunday, the installation-in-process is considered complete and will welcome guests to view the outcome. A reception takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. with all the contributing artists expected to attend. The installation itself will remain on view through April 14, 2019.
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A detail of the installation-in-process, "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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"HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" was conceived by Christine Sciulli and Bastienne Schmidt.
Contributing artists are Louise Eastman, Sabra Moon Elliot, Saskia Friedrich, LoVid, Toni Ross, Morgana Tetherow-Keller, Virva Hinnemo, Almond Zigmund as well as Sciulli and Schmidt.
Since the space opened on February 9, 2019, artists have been coming into the Southampton Arts Center to add their art contributions o the collaborative piece. The site-specific installation was conceived by Sciulli and Schmidt to be part Exquisite Corpse and part collective art project that reflects each artist's individual practice in a way where individual distinction isn't part of the point.
"This piece invited discussion of conventional notions of authorship to explore the contemporary necessity of collective making," the conceiving artists wrote about the origins of "HANDOFF."
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A detail of the installation-in-process, "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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A detail of the installation-in-process, "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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"HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" was conceived in concert with the Southampton Arts Center's current exhibition "ARTIST TAKOVER! Artists in Residence." Like "HANDOFF," the sprawling group show emphasizes the art making process with artists taking up temporary homes in designated spaces sited across SAC's multiple galleries.
Coming across Saskia Friedrich working with fabric on wall one afternoon felt completely natural in light of multiple interviews with artist-in-residents Ruby Jackson, Kara Hoblin, Jeff Muhs and Darlene Charneco in between talking with visitors about the art or making art themselves.
Friedrich typically works with fabric in her art practice, frequently creating site-specific works that are meant to be transient, she explained. She became inspired to create a language of stitches and weaves placed in grid formats of three by four that act as ciphers, she said.
"This feels like code for the theme of the show," Friedrich said. "The individual symbols interweave to become a whole. The stitches are floating in space even though they are physically located on the wall. They're connected and symbolize the interweaving of the project as a whole."
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Artist Saskia Friedrich installing new work for "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Installation remains on view through April 14, 2019. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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The installation contains diverse materials that share the experience of being woven. Cloth can be found in Friedrich's material swatches, pieces of jeans and fabric. Rope was used by Sciulli as part of the initial division of space in the exhibition. Artists integrated cardboard, paint and other materials to intersection the physical space and connect with the work of others.
"HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" remains on view through April 14, 2019.
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A detail of the installation-in-process, "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space" at the Southampton Arts Center. Photo by Pat Rogers.
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BASIC FACTS: A Reception for the completion of "HANDOFF: Weaving in Space: takes place on Sunday, March 24, 2019 from 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is free. The exhibition remains on view through April 14, 2019. Southampton Arts Center is located at 26 Jobs Lane, Southampton, NY 11968. www.southamptonartscenter.org.
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