Australian-based artist Penelope Aitken produced the work for her current solo show at DEOA in less than three weeks. Since the show's centerpiece is an immense quilt laboriously sewn by hand, she required a lot of helping hands.
Yet, this was not your typical female quilting bee.
Having friends and colleagues actively participate in her artmaking fits in well with her explorations of friendships and personal interrelationships. Not focused on stitching a traditional bridal quilt, this sewing project also included male sewers and topics of discussion ranged from the philosophical to the abstract.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DEOA
The exhibition is divided into two sections. A previous work titled "An ongoing conversation in a reclining position on matters deep & personal" is installed in the basement, and the current quilt installation "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen" is on the first floor. Like a poetic tailor, Aitken likes to stitch words together and chose "the politics of the personal" to link the two wordy installations, which both comment on the intricate politics of personal interrelationships and on the difficulties of maintaining individuality while negotiating through life.
Upstairs, the large white quilt constructed from translucent nylon mesh with small, flower-patterned panels lies strewn over a make-shift bed; its long, flowing edges ripple out like a bridal veil. This sense of flowing purity makes this quilt appropriate for an innocent bride; yet, the unfinished part of the quilt represents how things are never quite complete as the cycle of life continues.
In Aitken's work, feminist concerns loom close to the surface but do not overwhelm the viewer. Her themes include fidelity, brides, women, genealogy and she deals with these issues in an all-inclusive and non-threatening way. She replaces the '70's feminist quilt makers' boiling anger with optimistic images of weightlessness and purity. Perhaps subconsciously Aitken does not believe these absolutes of purity and fidelity can exist in real life, but can only be found in sublime realms.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DEOA
On the walls, Aitken applied small white paper and nylon panels that contained the written responses of her friends from around the world who were asked to comment on their concept of "faith." Most notable in the wide range of responses was the huge contrast between the Chinese and Western answers, with the former providing moralistic concepts and the latter offering deeply personal experiences. The Japanese responses tended to fall somewhere in the middle.
The Chinese participants responded with one or two Confucius-inspired characters such as "duty," "charity," and "fraternity." Yet on a humorous note, one well-fed Chinese participant, upon finishing his meal, said that he had faith in "little dumplings."
Some of the Western responses touched on current political situations; one mentioned he gained faith from the recent improvements witnessed in South Africa while another said she lost her faith in the "innate goodness of man" after a suicidal bomber killed 22 in Colombo. Unconcerned with current events, a solipsist wrote "I have faith in me." Aitken does not pass judgement, but has assembled these intensely private thoughts and placed them into the public sphere.
Downstairs, past a heavy curtain, one enters an ambient and ethereal space. An ultra-violet light casts a bluish glow that illuminates florescent nylon pillows. These pillows float at varying heights to give the viewer the illusory feeling of weightlessness; so in a sense, the viewer and art become as one, floating together. Thinly washed paintings of pillows are scumbled into the walls with day-glo acrylics. From a distance, these paintings give the appearance of real pillows, thus providing a feeling of an immense deep space similar to the distortions experienced when swimming under water. Based on an earlier work, this piece hints at a social gathering where one can have private dreams but can also present a public face.
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