Description
Rachel Blythe Udell works with heirloom clothing, salvaged fabrics, and other upcycled materials. She recrafts her materials into soft sculptural bodies and other worldly “habitats”. Udell describes her creative process as, “threading together identity, history, and personal experience.”
Her use of vintage lace, yarn, and scraps of familial clothing reference memory and the passage of time. The work forms through accumulated layering in strange and colorful ways. The soft biomorphic sculptures are a lively contrast to the industrial features of the museum’s lobby space. Organic forms are crocheted and stitched together – traditionally craft techniques associated with domesticity and “women’s work”. This woman’s work defies the centuries-old debate between what is art and what is craft. Instead, Udell’s work joyfully renders the question moot.
Curated by Erica Loustau, Adjunct Deputy for Design Integration
Lobby Installation