Desert Fiber Arts was invited to participate in the Maryhill Museum Exquisite Gorge Project II. Learn about this amazing opportunity.
Developed by Curator of Education at Maryhill Museum of Art, Louise Palermo, The Exquisite Gorge Project II: Fiber Arts features 13 regional fiber artists (listed below on this page) working with communities along 220 miles of the Columbia River from the Willamette Confluence to the Snake River Confluence.
Artistic Director for the project is artist Tammy Jo Wilson.
Each artist will design an original artwork collaborating with a Community Partner and community members from their assigned stretch of river. Artists will create unique installations, sculpture, and innovative designs attached to that specific site, and engage with educational opportunities to inspire and educate about fiber arts. There will be resources developed, including maps and guides to encourage visitation to each site. Each artwork will portray a section of the river itself and will connect to the next section.
The project is inspired by the Surrealist art practice “Exquisite Corpse,” where participants took turns drawing sections of a body on a piece of paper folded to hide each successive contribution. When unfolded, a whole body was revealed to show each contribution.
In the case of The Exquisite Gorge Project II, the Columbia River will become the “body” that unifies the collaboration between artists and communities, revealing a flowing 66-foot work that tells 10 conceptual stories (plus a frontispiece) of the Columbia River and its people.
A culminating Festival of Fiber Arts will be held Saturday, August 6, 2022 at Maryhill Museum of Art, where each free-standing “exquisite corpse” section will be brought together to reveal the continuous sculpture.
