Annet Couwenberg, Family Affair, model Mara Meyers. Photo Credit: Dan Meyers Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles September 30–December 11, 2021 Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles features an overview of ten years of cultural research, digital experimentation, and finished artifacts by Couwenberg, who uses lace as a primary material. Through her creations, the artist asks how traditional textile construction can be modified or transformed by adapting it to digital fabrication processes. Couwenberg’s technical experiments include 3D printing of mulit-pronged connectors that are used to assemble life-size umbrella-like structures, laser-cut buckram (cloth stiffened with glue) that produces dramatic origami “infinity” collars, and Y-shaped CNC-cut polyethylene that produces infinitely scalable lace forms. The exhibition also features a large interactive piece which will make its debut at the CADVC. Entitled Cleft, this work is based on a Dutch ruffled collar as an example of a piece of clothing acting as both a constraint and a beautiful enhancement. Cleft examines the precarious balance between the constraints of social norms and our private desires. Designed as an interactive work, Cleft allows audience members to serve as “digital puppeteers,” navigating the boundaries of our social interactions through the use of computer software. View the Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles virtual tour below. Livestream of “Cleft: An Art & Engineering Collaboration,” an event in conjunction with “Annet Couwenberg: Sewing Circles” About Annet Couwenberg Born in the Netherlands, Annet Couwenberg received MFA degrees from Cranbrook Academy of Art and Syracuse University. She received a Smithsonian Artist and Research Fellowship in 2014. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Gyeonggi MOMA (Ansan, Korea), HOMA Museum (Seoul, Korea), Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts (Wilmington, DE), 28th Street Studio (NYC), Contemporary Museum (Baltimore, MD), City Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Decorative Arts Museum (Little Rock, AR), Textile Museum (Tilburg, NL). Her work has been reviewed widely, including in Le Monde, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Baltimore Sun, The Atlanta Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, Fiberarts, Surface Design, The Journal of Cloth and Culture and Sculpture Magazine. Telos Art Publishing published a monograph on her work in 2003. Related Events Cleft: An Art & Engineering Collaboration CADVCOctober 5, 2021 5PM–7PM Learn More > Visitor Information Our exhibitions and events are free and open to the public for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy. If you need specific accommodations at one of our events, whether in person or online, or to experience an exhibition, please contact CADVC at cadvc@umbc.edu or 410-455-3188 as soon as possible.
