Ricki Dwyer is our new Sewing Seeds Artist in Residence for the summer! Ricki is a textile artist who comes to us by way of San Francisco. She started her undergrad at Pratt in Brooklyn, NY and completed it for Fibers at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2011. Here, she chats with us about the amazing work she will be doing with manhole covers and wax batik.
What was your original inspiration for this project?
I think working with a community garden, I wanted to make something that reflected the aesthetic of that community. I think it’s hard to create a proposal from such a distance about a residency that’s short-term, that’s site-specific. So I was trying to work with something that was a universal aesthetic; something that can reflect this space of the garden that can also reflect anybody, anywhere.
So I was working with the reliefs that I had in the sidewalks near me which were really beautiful. There are a lot of pathways in San Francisco that are designated by bronze reliefs in the sidewalk. And then I was more and more captivated once I started walking around by the manholes, specifically. Then I began applying that to New York when I started researching manhole covers; here there are layers of depth to the history of them and to the aesthetic creation of them.
I also think that, more often than not, you find ones that aren’t perfect– that aren’t this really clear mandala shape. They have residue of city life on them. There’s either a patch of grass growing, or a re-excavation of more pavement happening on a part of it: they’re obscured partially or fully. I think specifically about that interaction of capturing the time survived with the city after being an object that has been created in a factory in Southeastern India for Con Edison. But once they are planted in New York, they take on a life of their own.
What challenges have you faced during your process?
While most natural dye recipes rely on heat, in the batik process the temperature must remain quite cool to maintain the design. Due to these factors, it’s difficult to find resources for using batik with natural dyes. In the work I’m creating for this residency I’ve gone through many trials with different combinations of wax.
Currently I’m finding that a 2:1 ratio of coconut oil to beeswax allows for enough solidity in the mixture to be used for rubbings, but a low enough melting temperature that the wax will fully spread and penetrate the fabric when heated by the metal it is taking a rubbing from. I have been mixing up this wax myself, and pouring it into different re-used vessels such as deodorant sticks, which allows me to have a nice hold on the wax without melting the mixture with my body heat in the process.
How will the public be able to learn and interact with your project?
These large pieces will provide vivid examples of what colors these plants can achieve as dyes. As simply constructed works emblematic of flags or patchwork quilts, they will be energetic works. The public will have the opportunity to engage with simple art that highlights the process and displays, with a nod to documentary style, the path of the image.
The pieces will highlight the process of dyeing as an art, and bring these images of man made metal coverings into a designed view. The significant ritual of a daily walk, trip to and from the subway, distance to the corner store, all involve these images, where as many of the plants we can dye with are “common weeds” and indigenous. My personal interest resides in utilizing this residency as a clean look at the attractive qualities of natural dyeing as an art in itself.
Want to learn more? Join Ricki on July 25th at the Heckscher Foundation Children’s Garden for a workshop on wax batik and indigo dyeing, here. Ricki will also be celebrated during an opening reception in the Heckscher Foundation Children’s Garden on August 16th, RSVP here.
Also, visit Ricki at her website, www.rickidwyer.com.
All photos provided by Ricki Dwyer.
