Weaving Stories: The Narrative Power of Contemporary Fiber Art

an article in Mutual Art by Cassie Sim

Fiber artists show how the elaborate qualities of this medium can form all sorts of connections and open up important discussions in thoughtful and productive ways.

Our friend and member Gwen Samuels forwarded this article to us. We’ve copied a paragraph below. For more, please see the link at bottom.

Fiber art is a medium with a unique history, closely intertwined with social, cultural and political values, as much as yarn and thread. A postwar product, it was among the many creative forms characterizing the experimental '20s in the West, but fiber artwork went on a longer journey to recognition despite innovating and accomplishing as much as their counterparts. It wasn’t until the '60s that fiber works took on more sculptural forms and were thus considered fine art rather than craft, as it was previously dismissed – worse yet, a woman’s craft. By the '80s, artistic practices became increasingly conceptual, with fiber artists tackling issues such as gender, politics and the environment – sometimes in conjunction with each other. From a technical perspective, the fundamental qualities of fiber art seem to be constructiveness and connectivity, well-suited for the complicated issues frequently discussed in and beyond the art world; matching the complexity of these topics is the intricacy of fiber materials and its multitudes of binding methods, holding the pieces together.