Faith XLVII, Venarum Mundi, Heron Arts
Installation by Faith XLVII, The Nature of Memory
By: Nick Maltagliati
Faith XLVII is a South African artist best known for her evocative street art presented on buildings around the world. For this solo exhibition, Faith reimagined the idea of global travel through intricately stitched tapestries, utilizing atlases and foreign currency. Her show, “Venarum Mundi,” translates to “the veins of the world” in Latin. It is currently on display at the Heron Arts gallery through August 2.
Entry to Faith XLVII’s show Venarum Mundi
Upon entry into the gallery space, you are greeted by a museum-like arrangement of furniture, raw materials, and an antique Singer sewing machine in the process of stitching discontinued Russian currency. This section displays Faith’s origin of her Chaos Theory series alongside the dyeing materials of the site-specific installation in the middle of the exhibition. It also explains her process of stitching paper into fabric to assemble the couple of dozen tapestries suspended throughout the gallery.
There are three works that are the foundation of her current practice, which incorporate coffee cups dyed with paint and ink, cut into neat squares, and stitched together. These three pieces expand into a greater stitching application found throughout the gallery space. Below the artworks on the entry wall, there are the materials that represent her dyeing procedure. Jars with natural pigment powders, thread, an indigo-dyed bamboo reed, and yellow kitchen gloves that are more blue than yellow comprise this display. It was refreshing to see such a presentation of materials showing an artist’s process, as we typically only see the finished product.
After assessing this setup, I turn 180o to see the outcome of those raw materials: an installation of 15 indigo-dyed linen panels flanking a rose madder silk fabric stretched over a large metal hoop. “The Nature of Memory” plummets from the high ceilings of the atrium, accentuating the tall ceilings of the space.
The vertical fabric segments create a gradient as they surround the red, magenta-leaning, see-through fabric, which mimics the sun, perhaps. The gradient of indigo starts dark on both sides and gradually becomes lighter as the panels meet in the middle. This composition is installed with even spacing, and as bars hidden in the fabric hold the panels level. There is a couch right in front of this piece, allowing space for the viewer to sit and contemplate their own memory of nature.
Continuing through the show, there is a unique juxtaposition of clean geometry that one finds in traditional quilting, and textured materiality stemming from weathered banknotes and ink-dyed maps. The two main series that comprise the show are Chaos Theory (tapestries consisting of global atlases that dissect and rearrange the arbitrary borders that we are familiar with from geography class) and The Deconstruction of Value (tapestries crafted from discontinued paper money from various countries that have had severe financial upheavals).
As a cartophile, experiencing the Chaos Theory series unravelled my memory of borders, rivers, mountains, deserts, and seas. For example, when viewing “Chaos Theory XXI”, a stunning triptych that commands the attention away from the “The Nature of Memory” installation it faces, you could find San Angelo, TX, adjacent to Shackleton Glacier, Antarctica, or even Kishinev, Romania, next to Bambari, Central African Republic.
Chaos Theory XXI Deconstructed atlas, inked and sewn tapestry on linen, each piece is 83 x 51 in. (2022)
Faith has a unique finesse of color connection, creating harmonious gradients and organic shapes using the innate hues from the maps. These amalgamations explore global interconnectivity, poetically expressing that we are all on the same Earth together, regardless of the borders we have imposed upon ourselves. The factions and divided tribes humans have conjured up do not take away the fact that we are mortal beings, surviving as one species. Some of Faith’s early works in this series are activated with ink or tea that add a painterly touch (similar to her street art), and her later works involve precise “couching”, or a pronounced top stitching, which is used in the art of quilting.
Installation shot of Chaos Theory XXI
In the second series, The Deconstruction of Value, some tapestries are made from single-nation banknotes, and others combine money from all over the world. This series showcases the array of colors, iconography, and historical figures that differ significantly from those found on American money. Each piece varies in condition from pristine, almost fresh-from-the-mint quality to heavily worn.
One particular quilt, “The Deconstruction of Value XVI”, possesses a rich texture showcasing a history of handling by humans with a robust patina of creases, notes written in ink, and even pieces of tape to mend minor tears. Faith’s repurposing of legal tender examines our relationship and desire for money controlled within a system that could easily snap and dismantle how we circulate, interact, and connect with one another.
The Deconstruction of Value XVI (detail of the quilt seen above)
There are two additional pieces that do not fit within the preceding series that aid in breaking up the map and money-heavy presentation.
The first work mimics the madder silk hoop found in “The Nature of Memory” installation: “umbra viventis lucis”. Within a copper hoop, Faith folds and layers gold and copper metallic paper, deconstructed maps, and other found paper, and they are segmented into radiating triangles with uneven edges. The piece is double-sided, and it is installed away from the wall so you can view both planes. The second piece is Entanglement, a gargantuan collaged drawing of every flag in the world, but of course, to stay on theme of dissection and fusion, each flag is sliced up and rearranged in an off-kilter fashion. There is a nod to the color harmony found in her Chaos Theory series amidst the controlled disorder of the composition.
Entanglement Deconstructed flags of the world, pencil crayon and ink. 102 x 69 in. 2020
This exhibition is for the globally inclined, seekers of adventure and wonder through the simple material of paper and thread. The practice of composing such a grand show while employing everyday, utilitarian items demonstrates Faith’s skill and vision, helping us understand the world from a different perspective.
Images Courtesy of Heron Arts
