Mandy Greer is the bestest. I saw her knitted installation in Seattle and it was wonderful. They are sort of community projects, she has groups of people make piece of her larger works, and the end result is a very intimate handmade effect. Pretty much, it’s awesome. Her website is not super organized, but you can see it here.
One of the most important contemporary artists working in Europe, Annette Messager fragments images and language to explore the concept of fiction, the dialogue between individual and collective identity, and the social issues of normalcy, morality, and the role of women. In her work she forcefully illustrates the idea that all things — a child’s beloved toy, a photograph, a piece of embroidery, a word with seemingly unambiguous meaning — can be transformed into objects of potent expression.
Lauren DiCioccio makes exiquisite soft sculptures, primarily fabric reproductins of everyday objects that are slowly becoming obsolete (newspapers, lined paper, watches, etc) . I love that she leaves her pieces very messy, with the loose threads sort of emphasizing the care that went into creating each object. I really like her organza trash bags, the reproduction of these temporary disposable objects in a very delicate, high effort materials is really beautiful.
Her website is here.
Recalling an artist we looked at earlier, Do Ho Suh, I was drawn to his ability to create such an unusual space using fabrics extending from the ceiling. Studio Lilica is another group of artists who explores ways of creating sculptural pieces or lightings using fabric that extends from the ceiling. 
I find both aesthetic and metaphoric beauty in the extension of fabrics at a mass scale. The environment it creates is very mystical, putting you at a setting simliar to a deep forest full of trees overwhelming, with path of shadows on the ground. They are both environments you can only experience in vey specific places.
Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec are another architects who create overwhelming space using textiles.
“This is a modular room-dividing system called Clouds consists of textile pieces held together with elastic bands to make free-standing or hanging structures, which can be used to divide space and absorb sound.”
It seems evident that when we use fabrics/textiles sculpturally, we percieve the material in a completely different way from seeing them as a material for clothing.
While we’re on the topic of string, I think this is a really nice approach to using this material to create form…
Shinkichi Tajiri (b. 1923 in Netherlands)
Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (b. 1934 in Sweden)
Eva Hesse (b. 1936 in Germany)
Nobuyoshi Araki (b. 1940 in Japan)
Marina Abramović (b. 1946 in Serbia)
Michael Beitz (b. 19xx in xx)
Adel Abdessemed (b. 1971 in Constantine, Algeria)
Paul Loebach (b. 1972 in Germany)
Since this week is about knot making, I thought it would be nice to share an artist who works with pins and threads, Debbie Smith. Her work is entirely made up of these two materials, creating a big-scale scenery. The treatment and exhibition of the media change our perception of the materials as more artful forms.
