As the new academic year unfolds, the University of Arizona’s Joseph Gross Gallery opened its doors on Aug. 19 to “Future Tense,” creating a national conversation about the future of fiber arts, shaped by diverse student voices using experimental techniques to showcase modernity in deep-rooted traditions. “Future Tense” invites viewers to consider not just what fiber art is today, but what it could become. Participating in past iterations of the exhibit, one of this year’s event curators, lydia see — who prefers her name in lowercase — believes the titling of the exhibit carries a layered meaning.
“To me it means, both grammatically, like we are making art in the tense of now and in the future — but also at the time that I did the show, when I was finishing my graduate studies, it was 2021. So it also kind of felt like the future itself felt tense,” see said.
The exhibition was produced under the Surface Design Association, a national organization committed to the mission of fostering excellence in textile-inspired art. Through this partnership, the exhibition draws on a divergent pool of student talent from across the country, showcasing work by artists who define themselves as learners, regardless of formal academic enrollment.
While none of the exhibiting artists are students at the UA, their presence on campus serves a salient dual purpose: it exposes local viewers to a broader artistic landscape while locating Tucson and the UA as a site of national significance in the fiber arts community.
“Art can be intimidating and not accessible. And I think that on a university campus, it’s especially important to be as welcoming as possible — so that anybody who comes into the gallery can feel like they have something they can relate to,” see said.
Ann Morton, the show’s juror who is known for her social practice work with The Violet Protest, curated the exhibition from an open call, selecting pieces that exemplify technical rigor to communicate their unique concepts. The curatorial work of lydia see and Dylan Hawkinson assisted by students enrolled in the Gallery Praxis course brought these pieces to life with special attention paid to how these artworks could be displayed beyond traditional flat formats.
Kai McTaggart, a student at the University of Arizona, appreciated how the exhibit presented the art in a unique way that was accessible for everyone.
“It really pulled me in, you know? It just wasn’t art on the wall, it was like a whole experience that you could really get immersed in. Having the pieces hanging in the open space or mounted in unconventional ways makes it feel like you’re walking through the art,” McTaggart said.
“Future Tense” recognized several outstanding works for their technical and conceptual excellence following the reception on Sept. 25, with Morton awarding first place to Roxie Fricton for “I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia”, second place to Julia Aldridge for “Binary” and third place to Sage Bader-Gottlieb for “Sweep Knot”. Awards of Excellence were also granted to Ian Danner for “OIOAQ” and Rachel Cox for “Suspended in a Dimension in Which Normal Logic Seems Absent.”
“[It] completely blew me away. There’s something so emotionally raw and complex about it. The stitching and the texture just made you really see that it was very personal to the artist,” McTaggart said.
Among the standout works, see notes that Julia Aldridge’s “Binary” and Liz Freeman’s “Bad Man” displays the weight of thoughtful installation as they don’t just occupy space, these pieces animate the gallery around them and ask for viewers to engage with both the technical brilliance and emotional weight of the creations.
“Julie Aldridge’s piece, ‘Binary,’ is technically excellent. It’s made with a double weave technique, so both sides are mirror images — there’s no ‘back.’ The artist also sent very specific instructions on how to hang it, including that the robot’s feet should touch the ground. It’s work like that — where the installation is part of the storytelling — that really stands out,” see said.
The “Future Tense” exhibition is open for public viewing until Nov. 21. Following its closing, the Joseph Gross Gallery plans to continue with a winter exhibition inspired by a UA Press publication and, in the spring, its annual Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts’ thesis shows.
