Half Seen

I am moved by the haunting and technically amazing large scale weaving’s of fiber artist Lia Cook.  Her very large scale portraits remind me in a way of Christian Boltanski’s work.  The haunting eyes, quiet faces, almost blank of expression. Both playing with memory and blurring the lines of remembrance and memory.

Unmask: Beach Baby, 2001

Lia describes her practice:

My current practice incorporates concepts of cloth, touch, and memory. I use the detail, an intimate moment in time, often woven in oversize scale to intensify a shared emotional and sensual experience. I use a digital loom to weave images that are embedded in the structure of cloth… Child hood family snapshot and video stills are some of the raw materials that I draw on to investigate small, intimate details of the body or to capture a fleeting human expression…

Big baby,

Generally, when I see works using the digital looms and weaving techniques- I really miss the individuality of the artists hand and expressiveness in the work.  Even when Chuck Close did a series this way it felt a bit like cheap blankets ordered from your local photo store.  But Lia’s work is evocative, moving, and seems deeply personal which allows me, the viewer, to become personal with it.  I can only imagine the experience of seeing an installation of these large, woven, images.

Blur Girl, 2003,

Generally when I see A lovely quote on her work

“Absorption and inclusion are pervasive strategies in Cooks work, operating at almost every level: formally, in her constant exploration of new techniques; emotionally in the way she stimulates the sense of touch through the eyes; and intellectually in the multiple reference to different art histories. Her work reminds us that in English the phrase “to weave together “ means “to integrate.”
— Meridith Tromble, essay for the Flintridge Foundation Awards forVisual Artists 1999/2000 catalogue.

So I am loving Lia’s work and encourage you to check it out.