r-r-ruban vivi installation Cube Gallery winter 2022-2023 Lied Art Center Whitworth University 300 W. Hawthorne Road Spokane, WA 99251
Spokane Public Radio Feb. 2, 2023: r-r-ruban vivi… LINK
Inspiration for this installation comes from holiday decorations I observed when studying textile arts in Nigeria. I earned my MFA in Painting from Yale and had been imagining an artist's residency in Africa. The connection I saw between painting and Africa was dyeing, and large painterly batiks from Nigeria drew me in. In Nigeria I saw how textiles are prized, and how self-presentation, often in elaborate dress, is important. You purchase a few yards of fabric - maybe a hand-printed batik - and bring it to a tailor who sews your outfit to measure. And I noticed, too, that fabric was Nigeria's answer to the strings of lights that outline shop windows in the U.S. during winter holidays. In December in Nigeria solid-color yardage in red, green, and white is twisted, cinched, and stretched to create festive holiday decor on building fronts. In January this is dismantled - the fabric's folded and put away for next year. For my installation, r-r-ruban vivi, I borrowed the idea of yardage from Nigerian holiday decor for my "material" and brought this into a fully 3D format where swathes of fabric swing through space like vibrant paintstrokes. The solid and striped lengths include satins, iridescent organza, and gold tissue lame in a color palette that's energizing and calming, too. Lamps illuminate the installation from about 7am-midnight and give a lantern-like effect when the sun goes down. I like to drive by as it's getting dark to enjoy how the view of r-r-ruban vivi changes as I move around it. image © Maria Ogedengbe
