#viola bordon

At the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, BA Harrington‘s Suite Américaine and Viola Bordon‘s Muliebrity, both present works influenced by history and created from a feminist perspective. Harrington adds inventive additions to her expertly crafted furniture pieces , while Bordon’s intricate textile triptych (pictured below) examines the feminine associations in icons of freedom and liberty.

From the museum about Suite Américaine:

The daughter, granddaughter, and sister of carpenters, artist BA Harrington carries craft lineage into contemporary practice. Part of a growing, intersectional cohort of women-identifying woodworkers, Harrington learned her trade, like many before her, by reproducing furniture forms of the past. Suite Américaine holds a reverence for the history of American furniture making, but is inflected with a contemporary feminist imagination. This body of work references late-seventeenth through early-nineteenth century dower chests, writing desks, and sewing tables, which were designed specifically for women but historically made by men. However, where these objects once stored and concealed the labor and craft skill of women, Harrington opens them. The objects expose, activate, and celebrate their rich interiors, with linens and quilts spilling out of their wooden casings. The use of French in the exhibition’s title, Suite Américaine, is both a nod to the eighteenth-century term for a furniture set and a phrasing that allows the artist to feminize the word “American.” Similarly, the work on display acts as a feminist intervention on historic furniture, using video activations and collaborations with fellow artists to deepen the discussions around these works. In this exhibition, Harrington not only remakes the original forms with her own hands, asserting her technical skill, but also highlights the revolutionary potential of furniture to self-actualize the creative endeavors of women. Suite Américaine is a part of Radical Americana, a series of exhibitions organized by a consortium of Philadelphia’s extensive collection of arts and cultural institutions that celebrate how today’s artists are continuing the city’s unique and rich legacy as a center for creativity and civic engagement. To learn more about the other participating artists and organizations, please click HERE. To watch the Gallery Talk with BA Harrington and Viola Bordon, click HERE.

About Viola Bordon’s Muliebrity:

Since the American Revolution, the Roman goddess Libertas has served as a personification of the nation’s ideals, including ever shifting definitions of freedom and enfranchisement. Exemplifying the contested meanings of Libertas, the 1886 dedication of the Statue of Liberty coincided with national discord over the boundaries of freedom, sparked by the end of Reconstruction in the South, legislative debates over immigration, and the growing movement for women’s suffrage. Drawing from archival research at the American Historical Society, textile artist Viola Bordon examined the invention and evolving meanings of “Lady Liberty” as a fragmented icon of American identity. The resulting triptych, Muliebrity, takes its title from a term Bordon uses to articulate a distinctly feminine form of power-one aligned with endurance, fertility, and embodied knowledge, and inspired in part by poet Sujata Bhatt’s Muliebrity, which describes a woman whose daily labor is suffused with quiet, almost mystical authority. Sewing found fabric swatches into her quilt through the process of appliqué, Bordon presents a kneeling Lady Liberty surrounded by wilderness. With its visual affinity to late Medieval and early Renaissance depictions of Mary Magdalene, the artist’s patchworked portrayal invites us to consider how this figure of womanhood is repeatedly mobilized to serve the symbolic needs of patriarchal institutions.

To celebrate the World Cup, the museum is also showing Keun Ho Peter Park‘s soccer ball sculpture for Flow State. It was made using two woods, cherry and maple, which are native to the Philadelphia region where several of the games are being played.

From the museum:

Soccer — known globally as futbol — has long inspired artistic expression. Its accessibility has made it one of the world’s most beloved sports, played by hundreds of millions across cultures, generations, and levels of competition. The FIFA World Cup, held every four years, is a global spectacle that draws billions of fans who rally behind their favorite players and nations. Yet at the center of this phenomenon is a single object: the ball itself. In World Cup 2026: Flow State, Philadelphia-based artist Keun Ho Peter Park presents a sculptural portrait of the soccer ball. Inspired by the evolving forms of official World Cup match balls, Park explores how each design reflects the identity and aspirations of its host nation while conforming to FIFA’s exacting standards. A woodworker, furniture maker, and sculptor, Park celebrates this iconic object through a sculptural work that brings together his artistic languages of alternative coopering and pattern carving. Flow State also traces the cultural histories embedded within World Cup tradition. As a youth in Seoul, Park witnessed the 2002 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, when the tournament — and its official Fevernova ball — served as a powerful symbol of diplomacy and cooperation. The 2026 World Cup similarly commemorates a moment of international partnership. Referencing the official match ball, Trionda, whose tripartite design represents the three host nations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, Park reflects on soccer’s capacity to create connections across borders while sustaining local identities. The two woods selected for the work — cherry and maple — are native to the region surrounding Philadelphia, itself a host city for the 2026 World Cup.