Abbie Miller explores the history of smocking, creating a sculptural visual language that challenges the limitations of this craft and transforms it into a hanging textile installation.
What happens when a traditional domestic machine used for women’s work is freed from its historical boundaries? Abbie Miller explores the history of smocking, creating a sculptural language that challenges the limitations of this craft and transforms it into a suspended textile installation. Through the use of a twelve inch pleater, she laboriously manipulates large swaths of fabric and in doing so discovers a new way to express the medium. The installation invites the exploration of a colossal three-dimensional textile surface using a technique that is typically limited to small areas of the body.
Pulling Threads is a composition that uses a challenging process to compress then suspend historical and contemporary expressions in order to create a site specific architectural installation. This exhibit is the result of Abbie Miller’s ten month artist residency with GMA architects at the historic North Portland Hazelwood Building.
*Extra parking can be found on N Wheeler, N Dixon and N Ross Blocks & N Williams. They are located 2 blocks North from the Moda Center.