I have been awaiting this exhibit since I am a huge fan of textiles (and the William D. Cannon Art Gallery). It was unique and thought provoking. Wow.

This exhibition brings together three Southern California artists, Bhavna Mehta, Michelle Montjoy and Irma Sofia Poeter in a material-rich conversation about construction and connection. Using fine stitching and cutting, fraying fabrics and abstract shapes, text, color, texture, volume and shadow, their work weaves a narrative that seeks to clarify and extend the hidden layers of identity and understanding.

Michelle Montjoy is a maker, a former public school art teacher, a parent and a citizen.  She organizes socially engaged projects that start with her questions about access, connection, isolation, the passage of time, and the meditation in repetitive actions. She writes, about herself, "I may knit with groups on oversized tabletop looms to make museum installations, kids finger crochet with me using used tshirts to make soft environments to sit, swing and play, or we may consider what we count while needlepointing tally marks on old linens.  Participants start by moving their hands, an antithetic approach to many educational models, but a mode deeply invested in women’s history. The flattened hierarchy of sitting around a table embraces sharing stories and laughter. The slight absurdity of the forms we are making gives a freedom to the actions and intentions of the participants, and perhaps an insight into contemporary art."

Pieces done by Bhavna Mehta intrigued. She was born in India into a large extended family and was influenced by the women around her who were constantly embroidering, knitting, sewing and creating for the home. She describes her work as sewing and cutting, becoming intertwined with figures, text and botanical motifs that all form connections.


I loved this piece by Irma Sofia Poeter who describes herself as, "I am a multidisciplinary artist who works with textile in all its forms, that is, fabric, garments, embroidery and woven materials. Textile, a manufactured material that protects, gives form and defines social, cultural and economic standards, is for me a universal language given its strong ties to the whole human condition. Dyed, decomposed, embroidered or reconfigured, textiles
accentuate marks of trauma and detonate individual, family and collective memories that enable me to address identity, memory, gender, spirit and energy issues."