Made to fit

Old wool mill the perfect home for exhibit of textile-themed works

August 13, 2010|Cate McQuaid, Globe Correspondent

NEWPORT, N.H. — Only one of the 19 artists in “Fabrications’’ works small. This smart show is the second exhibition Cynthia-Reeves Projects has mounted in a former wool mill along the Sugar River here, and the 18,000-square-foot space provides plenty of room for large-scale art.

Not Angela Hennessy’s “Midnight Disease,’’ a series of 15-inch-by-12-inch drawings made with unraveled black velvet, hairnets, and thread. You have to come close to see the curlicues and snarls, and the shadows they cast. It’s nearly as intimate as brushing hard tangles out of someone’s hair. Contrast that relationship to gawking at objects that dwarf you. Hennessy often works with black velvet, conscious of its references to luxury, sensuality, and labor. These delicate, dark works recall lace, netting, and obstinate knots. Because of their size, it’s easy to overlook them. Don’t. They have a quiet, insinuating power that is best not ignored.

Thematically, “Fabrications’’ builds on the site’s history: The show focuses on textiles and the wider concept of fabricating. That second idea can be applied to just about any work of art, but Cynthia Reeves, an art dealer who owns Cynthia-Reeves, a New York gallery, and Spheris Gallery, in Hanover, N.H., has put together an impressive, cohesive show with an eclectic roster of artists, some local, some of national and international stature.

Jaehyo Lee fits the last category. His “Leaf Curtain’’ evokes both fabric and forest. Two curtains of leaves lined like beads on strings hang side by side. Walk between them, and the aroma takes you to the woods in October. His untitled wall sculpture resembles two enormous pompoms made from dried sticks; hanging side by side, they could be a couple of dandelions gone to seed, or two eyes bugging out.

Another curtain, Anne Lindberg’s “Old Brain,’’ made of 500 pounds of dark rayon thread draped from a steel beam, begs to be touched. The threads fall like heavy silk across your fingers. The title refers to the old est, most primal part of the human brain. The work conveys sensuality; at the same time its opacity suggests fear, and its sheer weight and the fall of it carry a sense of inevitability.

Other pieces delve into the industrial history of textiles. Danielle Julian Norton’s installation, “Translating Change,’’ seems tailor-made for the old wool mill. Two giant spools of thread rotate, pulling a single strand through several screen boxes and open space, hooking around pulleys, traveling up, down, and around.