Healing Fibers: Invisible Children. Central Massachusetts artists took a difficult theme and created a beautiful show

September 2016

 

Healing Fibers 2016 was the third annual visual art show curated by Bayda Asbridge to happen in autumn at the Sprinkler Factory in Worcester, Massachusetts. It dealt with the difficult subject of invisible children. Again and again, we hear about them in the news, the innocent victims of war, the Alan Kurdis and Omran Daqneeshes, the abused and neglected, the Bella Bonds, the anonymously oppressed, trafficked, and children affected by intersectional violence. The effort to show the horrors that go unnoticed and abuses that remain invisible requires a special kind of openness and dedication to children. Exactly that was the mission of a group of over 20 artists: to interpret this theme and give it visibility, to use fiber art, or integrate fabric in the artwork, and advocate for healing child trauma.

As a weaver, Bayda Asbridge is well versed in the medium of fiber; she is also a renaissance woman who works in a variety of media, as well as being a dancer, teacher, curator, and founder of the annual Healing Fibers show. Past shows were based on other social themes: Violence Against Women (2014) and War and Peace (2015) also raised funds at the opening for a charitable cause related to the theme. This year, CASA (Court Appointed Special Attorneys) was the charity cause; over $400 was raised at the opening night auction alone. The organization provides legal services for children whose position as minors could leave them unrepresented in court situations. Bayda Asbridge and participating artist Barbara Roberts also put together a supplemental program of presentations during gallery hours to explore additional tangents of the theme. The opening night brought dance and music, including children’s performances, and books for sale by artist Jill Watts. Food and drinks were donated by the artists; the buffet was staged by Grace Hoffmann, using color themes and toy centerpieces in a delicious culinary arrangement.

 

Despite the intensity of the theme, a playful or interactive mood came through. Perhaps that is because we all remember what it was like to be a child, but an added sensitivity to the theme in some cases came from personal experience with abuse or neglect, from gender discrimination, from having a profession involving children, from parenting, from the emotional pain of the “empty nest,” or from interest in a specific historical topic, among others. Clear positions were taken in the show: transgender youth, in a self-portrait by Marina Parella (“I just don’t know”); an empty playground (Ann Hanscom’s felted piece “No Child Left Behind,” or Mike McCool’s photograph, “The Empty Playground,”); a clothesline of children’s garments – ages ranging from baby to teen – reminding us of what will happen to many children according to statistics listed on small tags attached to the garments (Dawn Naylor’s “every year”); Helga Felleisen’s “Hamza,” a child’s lost mitten; the ducks on a quilt by Laura Cahalane (“made for baby”) reminding us to handle our children gently; child-figure garlands in which some of the figures have been cut out, a type of victim written in their place (Susan Black’s “Our Children”).

More abstract motifs were, for example, Bayda Asbridge’s woven individual yet connected swirls, large-scale references to the big dream and small child Alan Kurdi, who represents the treacherous and too often deadly flight from the Syrian War, but also the dream of peace that every child is, too; the paintings of Patti Kelly, whose color combinations convey the emotional closeness of the nurturing relationship; Gina Da Cruz’s assemblage linking female torsos and the “Intergenerational Impact of Abuse”); Richard Leo Jacob’s torn photograph “Healing Broken Souls” (informed by his practice of many years as a psychoanalyst); Lynn Blanchard’s encaustic painting “Tears From Above”; Donna Hamil Talman’s encaustics/assemblage using nails “No Small Matter”; Tammy Rebello’s assemblage, “It’s Time to Follow the Light,” based on her work with the mentally ill; and a wood-carved sculpture of a family situation, which can be a source of strength or weakness, depending on one’s experience, as in Nicole Xifaras’s “At the Core.”

Reference to a specific plight of children or mythological symbolism was represented in the work of Cathy Taylor (“Corn Mother”); Lynn Simmons (“Rock a bye”); Barbara Roberts (her “Tibetan Travesty” monoprint referred to the sinister adoption and subsequent abuse of teenage girls – refugees from Tibet – by a minister who later served time for rape). With her Egyptian-themed work, Charlotte Eckler repurposed an outdoor umbrella to hang see-through, self-designed and printed panels as an “Aura of protection” around a golden “Goddess of Protection.” The work included drawings of eight children selected from the many children in recent years who died from abuse or neglect and who were known cases with the Department of Children and Families.