tool meaning memories place stories
Open Call
This project is a series of art masks and oral histories by Fayetteville-based artist Suzannah Schreckhise funded by the Artist 3 6O grant. Schreckhise and poet Molly Bess Rector will conduct interviews with participants, who are interested in donating materials with personal significance, which will be made into sculptural masks.
The artist is searching for participants in and near Northwest Arkansas interested in contributing fiber materials and items that hold personal significance for them—items with compelling stories.
Taking into account the culmination of the item, interview, and personalities of the participant a fiber sculpture mask will be made in honor of each participant.
The masks will be included in exhibitions and a website will document the process and showcase the mask, and stories of the people that are participating. Lastly, an e-zine will be made for the exhibition encompassing the masks, people, and stories.
In exchange for their contributions, participants will be gifted the mask after the scheduled and upcoming exhibitions. You will also receive a professional digital portrait by photographer Andrew Kilgore, and a write-up by Rector to be featured on the project website, an art exhibition, and in the e-zine, the artist will produce for the series.
Attention to Tension Exhibition
Oct. 16, 2020-Jan. 31, 2021
Fort Smith Regional Art Museum
Attention to Tension
The motif of tension is always present in the medium of crochet, where each stitch depends on two opposing forces: the repeated creation and dissolution of tension in the yarn. As I crochet, I create an object that is both tightly connected and relaxed, thus creating works that express tension both literally and metaphorically. In this way, I use the physicality of the materials and the form to represent the contemporary historic moment, in which stress marks our every move, and yet relaxation is everything.
The non-uniformity and asymmetrically of the work represent the intuitive nature of artmaking itself. I start each piece with a plan in mind, while leaving room for my inner voice and intuition to guide the creative process. As I work, I am sensitive to how the materials and colors react to each other. My inspiration comes when I close my eyes and see remnants of light; my creative interpretation of the shapes, colors, and lines refine these after-images into artwork.