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Hi everyone, Louise here! I'm going to be taking over the GWL account for the next hour, for today's #StillSeeingThings.
Our focus today is going to be on the artist Sheila Hicks.
Our focus today is going to be on the artist Sheila Hicks.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hicks, i'll give a brief bio first. Born in Nebraska in 1934, Hicks now lives and works in Paris. She is known for her innovative and experimental weavings, as well as sculptural textile art.
Incorporated within these works are distinctive colours, natural materials, and personal narratives. It was whilst undertaking a Fulbright scholarship in South America (1957-1958) that her interest in working with fibres came about.
Hicks has exhibited internationally, in both solo & group exhibitions. She was included in the 2017 Venice Biennal, 2014 Whitney Biennial in New York, and the 2012 São Paulo Biennial in Brazil, to name just a few.
Her work can also be found in the collections of numerous museums, including: @V_and_A; @MuseumModernArt; @Stedelijk and @CentrePompidou.
A full list of these can be found on her official website:
https://www.sheilahicks.com/bio
A full list of these can be found on her official website:
https://www.sheilahicks.com/bio
This video, courtesy of @MuseumModernArt, is a wonderful introduction to Hicks and the work that she does. It might only be 4 mins 33 secs long, but I feel like I learned a lot about Hicks and her way of working, from it.
I'll give you time to sit and watch it. Please leave your thoughts below, once you have done so!
There are many things that I loved about this video. Not just seeing the artworks, but having Hicks's calming voice talk to us was just lovely. There are a few things in particular, that really struck me:
1) When talking about working with needle and thread, Hicks speaks of your thoughts travelling with them, as they move across the work.
"It bridges to the next thought, and when you've gotten to the 14th or 15th line you've more or less written a letter to someone"
"It bridges to the next thought, and when you've gotten to the 14th or 15th line you've more or less written a letter to someone"
This really stuck with me. I like this idea of art being something personal for someone else (us viewers, perhaps) to read something into it. And I suppose we all do interpret art in different ways.
2) This idea of using as many different materials as we can, in different ways. As Hicks says "We'd never get to the moon if we always did it the same old way." I LOVE this. This is such a wonderful attitude to have - in both art, and in many other aspects of life!
The video also looks at the piece called 'Pillar of Inquiry' at the end. And Hicks talks about changing the space and making people look up, and wonder about what is further up. Looking at the images below, what are your reactions to this piece?
As well as big, colourful, artworks, Hicks also continues to make what she calls Minimes. To create these, Hicks uses a loom that she has had for 50+ years.
In the video we watched near the beginning, Hicks shows us a couple of examples of these Minimes, including the one below - Blue Letter. In the video she talks about how she can just easily roll it up and move it to wherever necessary for exhibition!
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3330
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3330
What I find interesting about this piece is that, from afar, it could easily just look like a bit of blue fabric. But when you look closer at it, you can see all the different patterns that have been woven through the surface of the material.
I also love the image (in my head) of Hicks just rolling it up and throwing it into her handbag, to move it to a different country. I'm sure there are actual measures in places for transporting it, mind you...
In 2011 @boijmans hosted the following: "This exhibition presented a hundred small woven works (Minimes) that Hicks has made over the past 50 years. ‘Cent Minimes’ tells the story of an artist with a unique personality and a life full of colour, structure and composition."
If you scroll halfway down the page, you can see how these Minimes were displayed: https://www.boijmans.nl/en/exhibitions/intervention-18-sheila-hicks-cent-minimes
Have many of you came across Hicks’s work before? If so, do you have a favourite piece that you might like to share with us? She has created so much, that I could be here all day, tweeting about it!
Have any of you been to an exhibition of her work, or one that has had some of her work on show? Looking at her website, you can see just how busy she is: https://www.sheilahicks.com/shows
Hicks's website is such as well curated one! I've really enjoyed having the opportunity to look through the plethora of information it holds, whilst researching this takeover. If you would like to see more of her work, there is a gallery, here: https://www.sheilahicks.com/
There is also a page dedicated to short films about her works and her processes. The first one here links into what i've been talking about today, as it shows clips of 'Pillar of Inquiry' and how it was created and installed: https://www.sheilahicks.com/films
A quick search online will provide you a vast array of colourful images of Hicks's work, as well as numerous interesting interviews with the artist herself: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-84-sheila-hicks-making-defiant-honest-art
And that's all I have time for this afternoon, sadly. I hope you've enjoyed learning about Sheila Hicks as much as I have!
