Arts I Life
Fine Fibers
For 33 artists at Charach Epstein Gallery, fiber is
LISA BRODY
Special to the Jewish News
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O
nce a traditional and functional
part of a woman's life, taking
needle and thread to fabric has
now become an art form reflecting the
diversity and creativity of fiber arts.
The Janice Charach Epstein Gallery at
the Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield has been at the forefront of
showcasing textile art with one of the
largest and most prestigious annual fiber
exhibits in Michigan. This year the
show, which debuted Oct. 14, is tided
"Without Boundaries: Contemporary
Fiber" and will be open through Nov.
25.
The exhibit features fiber art from 33
fiber artists from across the country and
Israel. These artists stretch the bound-
aries of traditional fiber arts, finding new
meaning and expression while incorpo-
rating quilting, weaving, hand dying,
knitting, lace making, beading and bas-
ketry into unique forms. The artists
combine many forms of these fiber arts,
and gallery goers will see quilts, weav-
ings, tapestries, baskets, sculpture, jewel-
ry, clothing and handmade paper.
Several of the artists are well known to
lovers of the textile arts, and their new
works are eagerly anticipated. Sylvia
Nelson, gallery director and curator of
"Contemporary Fiber: Without
Boundaries," also enjoys showcasing new
artists, some of whom are showing their
very first pieces of art.
Shary Cohn of West Bloomfield has
long loved quilting and crafting and is
showing her work for the first time, with
three shadowboxes and a vest in the
exhibit.
"With my shadowboxes, I am manip-
ulating materials to create a pleasing
composition," says Cohn. "By manipu-
lating fabric — sewing it in different
ways such as couching, sewing in differ-
ent directions, maneuvering fabrics -- it
is three dimensional versus flat."
Cohn used a totally different tech-
nique to create her chenille vest — cut-
ting the fabric, washing it, making it
fluffy and turning it into a piece of
wearable art.
Another first-time exhibitor is Marla
Schindler of Oak Park, who created a
chuppah (canopy) for her son's wedding
this past August. "It is a memory chup-
pah," she says, featuring photo transfers
of the bride and groom, parents, grand-
parents and siblings; metallic fibers;
embroidery; and hand beading."
It was Schindler's first attempt at
quilting and was met with great acclaim
from the bride and groom, who will
hopefully incorporate it into future life-
cycle events. "It is an art quilt that is a
crazy quilt," notes Schindler.
Ruth Ann Prag Carter of Farmington
Hills created a 14-inch by 16-inch quilt
as a memorial to her Jack Russell terrier
Hot Rod, who died shortly after a walk
during which Carter found a large
sycamore leaf perfectly frozen on the
ground.
"I carried him and the leaf home," she
says, and it became the centerpiece of
the quilt, with a leaf in brown-orange-
gold fabric against a golden background
with swirls, reminding the artist of wind
blowing. Autumnal in feel, she says, it is
sad and somber. It was a way of saying
goodbye to him," she notes, calling the
•
quili
"bittersweet."
bttersweet."
Anita Sudakin of Birmingham creates
wearable articles of clothing, as well as
quilts, out of fabrics -- including recy-
cled fabrics -- using free-motion
machine embroidery on a sewing
machine. A new technique involves lace
making using regular colored sewing
thread stitched onto a dissolving base.
"I make sure all of the threads inter-
lock, like weaving, and then the unit> is
immersed in water, whereby the base
dissolves leaving beautiful handmade
lace," explains Sudakin. She then creates
shawls or uses the lace as edging on
other fabric.
A highlight at this year's show will be
renowned quilt curator Merry Silber of
Southfield speaking on "The Quilts of
Kindertransport" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday,
Oct. 28. There are three of these quilts,
now on permanent display at the
Indianapolis Institute of Art after hang-
ing in the Holocaust Museum hi
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Hanus Grosz is a psychiatrist,
who, along with his brother, was spirited
with many other children from Berlin to
London in 1939 after the German's
Kristallnacht pogrom. The majority of
the children never saw their parents
again.
Dr. Grosz's daughter Anita persisted in
encouraging her father to talk about the
experience, and finally he decided to
pursue other survivors of
Kindertransport through the Internet
and the Mormon Church, which keeps
genealogy records. Forty survivors
responded in the first year, and 1)r.
Grosz's wife, Kirsten, who was able to
sew, suicestecl they create a. memorial.
The Groszes sent a 10-inch by 10-
inch piece of muslin to each of the 40
survivors and encouraged them to use
anything
from photographs to patch-
work, appliques, embroidery or even
crayon -- to remember. These squares
became the "Quilts of the
Kindertransport."
"I have been lecturing for 35 years,
but I have never had responses like this,"
notes Merry Silber. "I've had more sur-
vivors come up to me at lectures, includ-
ing four in California. They say they did
not want to ever talk about their experi-
ences, but because of the quilts, now
they will."
Other artists participating in the show
include Lynn Aleman, Barbara
Altwerger, Celia Block, Alice Bronston,
fielen Bruck, Stacie Gerson Chappell,
Marilyn Kaczander Cohen, Shary
Cohen, Aniko Feher, Lynn Feldman,
Ellen Firestone, N. Amanda Ford, Sheila
Groman, Marilyn Henrion, Jan Jacobs,
Muriel Jacobs, Susan Knott, Anna
Kocherovsky, Julie Langensiepen, Ruth
Ann Carter Prag, Sherri Roberts, Marla
Schindler, Ann Schumacher, Lola
Sonnenschein, Ellen Stern, Anita
Suclaldn, Patti Tapper, Nancy Waldman,
Carol Watkins, Karen Willing, Carol
NIcinernan and Laura Witherspoon.. El
"Contemporary Fiber: Without
Boundaries" is on display at the
Janice Charach Epstein Gallery at
the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield through Nov. 25.
The exhibit is free and open to the
public.
'An Evening of Coffee, Culture
and Conversation" will take place
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28 (note
date change). Renowned quilt
curator Merry Silber will give
a presentation and lecture on "The
Quilts of Kindertransport." No
charge, but reservations are required.
Call the gallery at (248) 432-5448
or e-mail: gallery@jccdet.org
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