ARTIST STATEMENT
Fabric and writing both have the capacity to hold memory, to reveal and to obscure, and to keep secrets. My practice explores fibers and language with curiosity, such that I can co-create with these materials in an ongoing and reciprocal dialogue. For this piece, I Build a Raft, I dyed the layer of batting material that in traditional quilting is tucked away, hidden from view. By revealing this layer, I allow the material to communicate with the viewer this notion that our rage, both personal and collective, is present, in movement, and flowing with force. Through this engagement with transparency and exposure, I subvert a quilt’s more familiar function of covering or concealing over: we do not need to quiet down or conceal our fury.
My creative work investigates visibility and obscurity, and I see textiles as a fertile venue for this investigation. I play with allowing the materiality of the textiles to play a direct role in what is revealed to the audience by releasing control over perfectionist structures and allowing the material I work with, as co-creator, to make creative decisions over what is seen or known. These material collaborations and processes are all left visible for the viewer as draping, loose threads, frayed edges, and visible seams. Text is folded into seams, dissolved into fray, or looped back onto itself in knitted structures.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dagny Rayn Chika (they/she) has spent most of their life in the Pacific Northwest: growing up in the Seattle area and then attending Western Washington University where they studied both Creative Writing and Physics. Currently, they are attending The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as an MFA candidate in fibers and Material Studies. She is honored to have recently been part of group exhibits at Common Area Maintenance (Seattle, Washington) and The Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, Colorado), and her visual work and writing have been published online and in print through multiple publications, including most recently The Kingfisher Magazine. She is left-handed and has a sweet tooth.
© Dagny Rayn Chika