Stop by the Artspace Gallery and see if you can figure out how the 15-foot-high column of folded blankets keeps from falling over. The piece is part of Marie Watt’s new show, “Blanket Stories.”
By using a material with tactile, energetic properties most viewers are familiar with, Watt has the basic building blocks for lucid sculpture that is not overdressed or overly abstracted. It is like confronting people with memories and sensations that are inevitably a part of their past. The smell and feel (and for those who are adventurous, the taste) of a wool blanket are vivid components of life.
Watt incorporates materials like cedar and bronze to complete her “blanket stories.” The centerpiece of the show is the stack of folded blankets reaching toward the ceiling. The site of its fragile balance is agonizing, but the artist will not share her secret to balancing the mass of wool.
“The teacher in me believes in telling people the answer to their questions,” Watt said. “But sometimes I think the mystery of the experience is more important than knowing the answer.”
The mystery she talks about – gazing at a precarious stack of would-be bouncing blankets – is the greatest visual component of her show. The mystery plays well to the unknown story behind each individual blanket, and the way its stories relate to the myriad of other blankets’ stories.
Another sculpture in her show is a large, bronzed stack of blankets on a thickly layered cube of cedar with a thin layer of multicolored, cut blankets sandwiched inside it. The visual effect has an elemental ring to it and is good for a contemplation, but is ultimately not as compelling as the tall stack.
A giant wall hanging, Threshold, has six large army blankets sewn together with colored squares resembling blanket-stacks ambling up its left side. Concentric circles take up most of the gray-green space. In the center of the circles is a pink satin ribbon, splayed across the target of circles.
The piece reads somewhat militaristically, with the target and army blankets, but some art appreciators might take a sexual bent when interpreting this piece because of its splayed pink ribbon form that exudes a slight sheen. Watt said this piece is an answer to the kitschy dreamcatchers found at a souvenir shop. The original dreamcatchers were meant to ward off evil spirits, while letting in good spirits through a hole in the center.
The binding of a blanket is where fingers and faces most touch the blanket - where the most concentrated human component lies - which is why she chose this pink ribbon to be the mending porthole. Themes of time, stability, history, intimacy and welcoming are all very apparent in Watt’s work.
The three sculptural pieces are joined by several prints, most of which have a fibrous composition. There will be a book at the opening in which people can record their own stories of a blanket, should something in the show jog a specific memory. Watt will host a sewing circle from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 21, at the Center for the Arts. If the circle is successful, the piece will hang in the show.