DANA BARNES
Photograph courtesy of Dan Root and the artist.
After the crest of its popularity, at around the time of Objects: USA, fiber art suffered a long decline; it became associated, quite superficially and unfairly, with amateurish macramé and ubiquitous shag rugs. For a long while it seemed that the vocabulary developed by artists such as Sheila Hicks and Claire Zeisler would never be reclaimed. Then came Dana Barnes. Since she opened her studio in 2010, she has explored a vocabulary of heavy braiding and deep texture, working with organic fibers such as merino wool and silk. Many of her works explicitly invoke the stratagems of first-wave fiber art, such as the domination of space through swag-like, draping forms.
Others are more functional in orientation, usable as floor coverings or—in the case of her Endolith series, made by casting concrete over wool—as seating. Barnes has always been a confident colorist, and this aspect of her work is put to great use in her series RETOLD, for which she infuses antique hand-knotted carpets with polychrome fibers. The effect is extremely painterly and also, as the title suggests, alludes to the narrative quality of carpets—which took flight in ancient tales—reimagined in abstract terms.
Shades and Shards wall sculpture in Yak, Black Blueface Leicester, Gotland, Merino, Camel, Cashmere, Angora, Bamboo, Silk, Steel, Dichroic Glass, Labradorite and Smoky Quartz.
Designed and made by Dana Barnes, USA, 2020. 96” L x 30” W x 120” H 243.8cm L x 76.2cm W x 304.8cm H
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