Amid a resurgence in fiber art, a bigger-than-ever exhibit in the city opens Friday with more than 60 artists and a month of installations, experiences, and performances.
The 16,000-square-foot Environment + Microclimates exhibit includes quilts, a fabric-covered trampoline as well as abstract displays created with textiles, wire, and plaster and interactive options, like a live quilting circle and a hunt for milkweed. Other events will include an evening of poetry, a Korean burrito pop-up, and a somatic sound performance. The art installations are from members of Detroit’s two-year-old Fiber Club, a free monthly gathering for hundreds of fiber artists.
Fiber art is made with natural or synthetic material like cotton, felt, and silk, that would be used to make clothes or fabric. A practice that originated centuries ago, fiber arts are gaining more interest as of late in Detroit and nationally, with cities across the country reporting a resurgence.
Writer Julia Halperin contended last year that “fiber art is finally being taken seriously” in an article for the New York Times. On TikTok, more than 75 million posts on weaving, embroidering, and other fiber practices contribute to the widespread interest in the art craft. In metro Detroit, the Cranbrook Academy of Art reports an “exponential” growth of student interest and the College for Creative Studies in Detroit expanded its fiber arts courses in response to growing demand.
Botanical artist Lisa Waud and co-curator of the exhibit is cautious about labels, quoting rapper LL Cool J.
“Don’t call it a comeback,” she said. “The craft of fiber art has always been here.”
Sarah Rose Sharp, co-curator of the exhibit, said it’s intended to provide an overview of the fiber arts environment and support the diverse talents of Fiber Club members.
“It’s about trying to get an overarching view of the fiber art community and landscape,” she said, “but then with these sort of subset experiences that artists are free to program however they want to present their work as solo or in small groups, shows that they self-curate.”
Longtime fiber artist Lynn Bennett-Carpenter is doing a solo show for the exhibit, displaying a hand-woven drawing of a tree she saw on Woodward. After painting pieces of wood, she cut them into thin strips and wove them back together using a floor loom, with a magical realism flair.
“It’s equally weaving and drawing and painting, and through that, I think sort of a new form emerges,” said Bennett-Carpenter, who is experimenting with new techniques for this piece.
Bennett-Carpenter said she joined Fiber Club a year ago, wanting to break out of working in a silo, and be a part of all the fiber art energy in the city.
“There is just this like-minded energy and commitment and obsession with thread [in Fiber Club] and how that all gets translated in all these crazy different ways,” said Bennett-Carpenter, adding that it’s exciting that the club is not exclusive.
Some art clubs are invite-only or cost money, but Fiber Club is free and open to all.
“Breaking down that hierarchy is really refreshing of who’s on the top, who’s on the bottom,” said Bennett-Carpenter. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all doing it and that’s what’s important. We’re all passionate, excited about it.”
Jeremy Noonan, professor and section lead of fiber and textiles for the College for Creative Studies, said there’s been a marked interest in fiber arts in recent years.
“Fiber arts offer such a dynamic intersection of traditional techniques and contemporary practices, and students are drawn to this versatility (more so post-Covid),” he said.
Beyond expanding courses with more in-depth opportunities to explore textiles, pattern making and material studies, CCS incorporated new technologies like laser cutting and digital print and pattern design tools into the curriculum.
The interest in fibers has grown exponentially, said Joey Quiñones, Artist-in-Residence at Cranbrook and Head of the school’s Fiber Department which started in 1932.
“In recent years, there has been an overall increase in the number of artists who have discovered the multi-faceted potential of fiber as a medium,” he said, noting the many Cranbrook graduates in the exhibit, including Bennett-Carpenter. “While interest in fiber has grown exponentially, we still only admit 7-8 students a year in order to build community, foster connections across the academy, and help each graduate student reach their artistic and professional goals.”
While some of the exhibit’s displays are more abstract or playful, others bring in issues of social and environmental injustice.
Another Cranbrook graduate, Irene Perez, created an installation made of emergency blankets, children’s clothes, and a pinata to call attention to ongoing issues stemming from a zero-tolerance policy enacted during the Trump administration that mandated parents who crossed the border illegally with their children be separated.
“I hope that it brings a little bit more attention to immigration as a whole,” said Perez, noting the upcoming Nov. 5 election.
Another display, a collaboration between artists Leslie Rogers and Melissa Dettloff, was inspired by a city blight ticket one of the artists received for their home pollinator garden. The artists will lead a hunt for milkweed to cultivate seeds at the exhibit. The blight ticket hangs on the display room’s door knob.
The Environment + Microclimates exhibit will be held at the Boyer Campbell building in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood. The Detroit Design District will host a ticketed opening reception from 5-7 p.m., followed by an opening for the general public from 7-9 p.m.
The exhibit is free and will be on display Fridays from 6-8 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. throughout the month of September.