Punto in Aria at Garrison Art Center

Featured Project: with Patricia Miranda

Punto in Aria, Patricia Miranda’s solo exhibition at Garrison Art Center, features monumental textile- based sculpture and installations in the gallery space, as well as a site-specific lace installation on the venerable tree outside. In addition to Miranda’s artworks, the show includes items from the artist’s collection, such as panels and glass gilded with vintage and inherited gold leaf depicting lace patterns. Miranda’s work involves a rigorous research into historic material practices in context of women’s labor, ritual, and the environment. The show runs through November 7^th, 2021.

What is the idea behind the body of work in this show and what would you like to share about your process of making it?

During the pandemic, I posted studio images on social media of dyeing family lace from my Italian and Irish grandmothers with natural cochineal insect dye. Soon after, unsolicited donations of lace and linens from friends and strangers began to arrive in my studio. This has become a continuing lace archive and research project, currently comprised of over 2000 documented pieces of lace, each photographed, measured, and collected into the archive before being used in a work. The offerings of lace became integral to the work, tangible participation from a community of family, friends, and strangers around the world. The Archive is on view in the gallery in digital form as well as incorporated into the installation. The Lace Archive is now supported by an individual artist grant from ArtsWestchester. The hand-drawn works in graphite and gilded glass are all examples taken from the archive.

The lace works of the past year, created from donated lace, have referred to the hidden domestic labor of women, historically through today, and the ways that textile is a constant presence around our bodies. This summer colorfully embroidered aprons, handkerchiefs, and doilies, not originally part of the work, began to arrive. Despite their beauty, at first I didn’t see them as part of this work. And yet the fact that an apron or handkerchief of seemingly no value, that might never leave a home, had been so carefully adorned and embellished seemed a tangible act of love. I thought about these objects as visible evidence of the hidden labor of care, a private act of love that required no recognition. Apron strings began to look to me like forlorn arms reaching for a body to wrap around. Through paying attention to what showed up, the monumental sculptural piece, Where there is serene length, (from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons), and circular wall pieces, Enwrapped in arms enfolding; I and II grew to suddenly be full of aprons and handkerchiefs.

The community has been welcomed into the project in numerous ways; to add to the collection by bringing or sending lace to the gallery, and through numerous workshops. I am thrilled that there are currently many boxes and bags of lace waiting to join the archive. In September we hosted Elena Kanagy-Loux, cofounder of the Brooklyn Lace Guild and a collections specialist at the MET Textile Center, to talk about the archive and exhibition, and styles and histories of lace. People brought lace to share, and learned to identify examples. In October I led two natural dyes and pigment workshops, and a sewing circle to start a new work. On November 7, the final day of the exhibition, I will offer a free workshop on historic inks, and we will continue to sew lace in this ongoing collaborative project.

Installation view, Garrison Art Center Gillette Gallery

Patricia Miranda is an artist, curator, educator, and founder of The Crit Lab. and MAPSpace. She has been awarded residencies at I-Park, Weir Farm, Vermont Studio Center, and Julio Valdez Printmaking Studio, and been Visiting Artist at Vermont Studio Center, the Heckscher Museum, and University of Utah. She received artist grants from Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance; Anonymous Was a Woman Covid19 Relief Grant; two grants from ArtsWestchester/New York State Council on the Arts, and was part of a year-long NEA grant working with homeless youth. Her work has been exhibited at ODETTA Gallery, ABC No Rio, Wave Hill, and Rio II Gallery (NYC); The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at UConn Avery Point (Groton, CT); the Newport Art Museum (Newport RI); Cape Museum of Fine Art (Cape Cod MA); and the Belvedere Museum (Vienna Austria). She currently has a solo exhibition at Garrison Art Center (Garrison NY).

Punto in AriaSculpture and Installation by Patricia Miranda September 18 – November 7, 2021