About the exhibition:
Krista Anara Cibis on “Sometimes She's Little, little. Sometimes She's Big, big.”:
This hand-embroidered body of work is the culmination of a multi-year project, begun in 2018 and completed in 2024. Initially, I had become more attentive to the words and phrases I heard shouted on the street or spoken aloud next to me on the train in the rhythms of repetition. I was not aware of my shift in attention, at first. A gradual change took place through the noticing. Listening became documenting. I began writing down the exact phrase I heard spoken. I noted the date, time and location where I heard the words strangers were yelling or speaking to no one and yet, conversely, given the volume, spoken to everyone.
As the project developed, an undercurrent became a theme. The phrases I heard seemed to connect to relationship, whether only partially getting what you need (soup but no spoon), instability (the trees that were chopped after being planted), or of worth (undeserving of being treated well or the reminder of being loved.)
The seven hand-embroidered panels are each direct quotes that I archived over a two year or so period. I primarily used hand dyed and altered silk threads. I began hand-stitching these phrases onto five separate found linen panels during the silence of quarantine and shutdowns. The final two panels that were completed are on deconstructed antique quilting sections that I separated and restitched after leaving them outside my home for months to be changed by exposure to time and weather. The colors, textures and materials (silk, velvet, found plastic twine, shreds of tarping, etc.) are physically combining interiority with exteriority, inside and outside, public and private.
The fabric supports for most of the panels are discarded upholstery fabric from decades old deadstock that I have hand-beaded and embroidered. Once I finished hand-embroidering the text, I took the panels to a local forest and left them under the leaves for months to remove the control of the staining and color bleeding out of my hands creating a more intimate connection to what is public and private. Several of the pieces also have the date, time and location embroidered in large sweeping fonts on the “backs” of the pieces which allows for viewing from both sides.
Sometimes She's Little, little. Sometimes She's Big, big. will be on view in Gallery 3 from June 5 - June 22 , 2025 with an opening reception on Saturday, June 7th from 4-7 pm.
ABOUT THE ARtist:
Krista Anara Cibis’ (MBA, MA Critical Studies and MFA in Fiber and Material Studies/Sculpture) maintains studios in both Chicago, Illinois and in the rural San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Her work is largely a materials’ driven, extensive research-based practice, exploring the intricacies of place, cultural artifacts, and systems of community, centered in traditional craft techniques.
She has received a Spoonflower textile design award, a year’s long residency at Textile Hive in Portland, Oregon and her solo show Better than Nothing was featured as the kick-off for Sculpture magazine’s international conference. Most recently her work was reviewed in Surface Design Magazine. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.