I have so much love for the Fibers Open Studio. It really might be the day I most look forward to of all the days on the SCAD academic calendar. To put it mildly, SCAD Fibers Open Studio is just magic, a genuine sampler of SCAD culture.
Visitors enter the beautiful Pepe Hall through the front doors and into the white light. The energy and atmosphere are charged and buzzing with excitement. One can romp around to the DJ’s tunes with a beverage and finger food, bumping into professors, classmates, Savannah residents, and even people from Instagram. But chicken skewers, conversations, and vegan cupcakes are not the main course of the evening. The most enticing treat served is undoubtedly the art.
Fibers Open Studio really feels like SCAD at its best: creatives simply enjoying an evening admiring such a large assemblage of work. Fiber and textile art, in my opinion, often flies a bit under the radar. Seeing such a diverse collection of this medium feels so refreshing and exciting. Fibers lends itself to so much versatility. Artists can express themselves through weaving, dying, knitting, crocheting, and felting, just to name the obvious ones.
There was a great scope in the array of themes and subject matter depicted within the pieces. Mounted on the walls are complex prints, elaborate weaves, and expressive portraits, but the ones that really captured me tonight were the ones inspired by nature and natural forms. Some examples being a print design that is redolent of Henri Matisse’s floral “Cut-Outs”, a textile structure that reminded me of mossy creek beds called “lilypocalypse”, created by Lily McWhorter.
There was also a Fibers MFA Thesis Exhibition that I found especially appealing. “Earthtanglements” by Lusiana Morales Febo carried on the naturalistic themes by combining sticks and weaving to create unique and captivating forms. I seriously could not stop staring at the process drawings included in the display.
If just looking does not cut it for you, there are also generous opportunities for making at the Open Studio event. Throughout the night the Fibers department offers complimentary hands-on lessons in major-related activities like screen printing, wet felting, fabric painting, and fabric dying. Once you’ve completed the activity you get to keep whatever piece you’ve created as a party favor. No matter if you leave the Fibers Open Studio with a new piece, a full stomach, great memories, or inspiration, it always leaves you hungry for next year.
Words by Benjamin Pulka
Photos by Evan Skovronsky