Artist: Mary Giehl of Syracuse, New York, USA
Interview 123: Mary will be exhibiting in the 2014 World of Threads Festival exhibition Solo Shows & Installations in the Corridor Galleries at Queen Elizabeth Park Community & Cultural Centre in Oakville, Ontario.
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Interviews published and curated by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Mary Giehl was a Registered Nurse for 22 years working in the Pediatric ER, Pediatric ICU and Transport. In 1985 she returned to school to study Fiber Arts at Syracuse University while continuing her career as a nurse. She graduated in 1989 with her BFA in Fiber Arts, then continued on to receive her Master's of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 1992. Mary continued to teach sculpture and work as a Registered Nurse till 2012 when she was able to leave nursing to focus full time on her art.
Mary has exhibited throughout the North East USA, including solo shows at the Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY; Phoenix Gallery, NYC; Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE; Rochester Contemporary, Rochester; Acme Art Company, Columbus, OH; Indianapolis Art Center, and many others since 1988. She has been included in many group exhibitions. Mary has been the recipient of many grants including the CNY Decentralization Grant, Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Grant, the Puffin Foundation Grant and others.
Mary was an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Visual Arts, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Isla of Santay, Ecuador, The Studio of Key West Residency and others. There have been many articles and reviews written on her work. Mary's website
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Artist: Mary Giehl. |
Tell us about your work:
My work is about introducing the audience to ideas that are important to me. For many years my work focused on issues about children especially how fragile they are. I would use different materials to express my concerns about this issue. I have never been able to settle in on one specific type of material to use. I explore the materials that will best relay the concept of the pieces I am working on. As much as my concepts have a social meaning my materials are very broad from fibres to bronze, to experimenting with different materials.
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Rice is Life, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
Much or your art conveys a social or political message. Are you attempting to evoke particular feelings in your audience?
I would say yes that I want my work to evoke feeling to my audience. My work evolved because of my nursing. I bring to my work some of those heart-felt moments that I have encountered while taking care of children. I was most moved by those children that had been abused. I am not interested in my audience being repulsed by the work but to feel empathy and kindness. I make the work inviting but once the audience begins to focus in on it they become aware of the deeper meanings within the pieces. I also think that the work has an educational aspect to it.
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
Were you involved with the arts while you were nursing and to what extent?
I had lived in Vermont for a year and had learned to weave. When I returned to central New York State, I began to take private weaving lessons. I realized I could take free classes at Syracuse University; I was interested in making those large wall tapestries from the 80's. I was a nurse for about 8 years when I took my first fibre arts weaving class. One of the students and a teacher said I have real talent and should take more classes. After a few more classes I matriculated into the Fiber Arts Program at Syracuse University. I was still nursing full time in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at University Hospital in Syracuse, New York. My senior year I attended a residency, at the time I was working with steel and fibres, combining them together. The other artists at the residency thought I should apply to graduate school for sculpture since my work was trending that way. I attended graduate school in Sculpture at Syracuse University from 1989-1993 and continued to work in the Pediatric Intensive Care unit.
After graduate school I worked as a nurse till 1998 while teaching sculpture part-time. I continued to teach till two years ago when I was able to leave teaching and concentrate on my artwork.
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
How has your life and art changed since you made the transition?
My life has totally changed since leaving nursing. I loved what I did as a nurse working with children and will always have great memories. Once I left nursing I was able to develop my work more. I was able to spend much more time in my studio and I was able to travel, to do residencies and to explore the art world more. I could spend 30 plus hours in my studio a week. It just gave me so much more time to do what I love to do, making things.
Much of my work had focused on memories of the children that I had taken care of. Since I have left nursing I seem to venture off into other social themes.
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
Your artwork includes installations, 2D and sculpture work. Which of these is your favourite and why?
My favourite has always been creating installations. There is something about changing the space in a room and having the audience come in and become part of the piece. The audience does not just look at one piece of work but is surrounded by it.
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Rice is Life, detail, sushi, red & black rice, threads, 2014, tied threads, cooked rice, installation: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
Some of your bodies of work reflect your medical background, e.g. Under the Microscope and They Keep on Growing. What was the motivation behind these works?
In 2005 I was asked by Western Illinois University in MaComb to do an installation that had a universal theme. Talking with my husband Greg Boyer, a Bio, chemist who works in water quality, he mentioned contaminated water. I started researching the theme. I learned that 4,000 children die each day from contaminated water. I then looked into the different organisms that cause these children to die or become very sick. The piece was titled All About Water. There were 150 yards of silk that was Shibori dyed and then silk screened with 9 different organisms. Those organisms were the ones that had contaminated the water. This mainly occurs in third world countries.
Fast forward to the last few years. I became very interested in crocheting and was looking at these organisms. I began to crochet small 2in. circular forms with sewing thread while looking at the microscopic images. As I researched algae, I realized they were similar to different type of algae such as Rhizobium. Also some of my 2D pieces have been inspired by cyanobacteria.
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A Functioning System, wool, 2012, crochet, dry felted, wet felted, installation: DCCA, Wilmington, Delaware, USA, 12' x 20' x 9". |
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A Functioning System, wool, 2012, crochet, dry felted, wet felted, installation: Tyler Art Gallery, Oswego, New York, USA, 11' x 16' x 7". |
In what way does your background in nursing inform your artistic work?
My nursing background has fully informed my artwork. When I was in my senior year of undergraduate school, I took a leave from nursing for 6 weeks to do my first residency. When I returned to work, I found out that one of the nurses I had worked with had committed suicide. I decided at that time to make a piece dedicated to her. I made a 4ft x 5ft x 8ft steel cage and in it were two stacks of white uniforms that the nurses at the hospital all donated. It was my first piece that had a social meaning. I then started researching artists that worked with a social political theme. This was the 80's so there was lots of work about the Vietnam War. Nancy and Edward Kienholz made such an impression on me; their work was so informative.
My next piece was very didactic where I made cement babies that were abused. They were inspired by five babies I had taken care of that were abused and had died. Since then there has always been a child theme to my work with an underlying message. At times the message is clear, other times it is to abstract. My work always starts with a theme or a material that I create a theme from.
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They Keep on Growing, thread & insect pins, 2013, crochet, installation: Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York, USA, 10' x 16' x 2". |
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They Keep on Growing, detail, thread & insect pins, 2013, crochet, installation: Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York, USA, 2" crochet circler forms. |
You have undertaken a number of residencies, mostly in the USA, and one in Ecuador. Tell us a little about the one in Ecuador:
The residency in Ecuador was the most unique ever. I do not think there will ever be another one that will be so great. There were seven artists, two of us from the USA, Kim Waale and myself and five from Ecuador. We were on the Isla Santay that is in the river across from Guayaquil. We were there for eight days to make art with the locals. Each of us had one local resident that we collaborated with. We slept in huts with netting; there was no running water, outhouses only and no electricity for us. The locals had some electricity. The women feed us three meals a day mostly rice.
My project was making paper from the local grasses to create two outfits that were wearable. My collaborator had a niece that we made one of the outfits for and the other was for me. We had lots of help from the local people and those visitors that came over from the main land. It became a community project. At the end of the residency there were over 200 people that came to the opening to see what we had done. The work was all site-specific. My good friend Larissa Marangoni was the person that arranged and organized this event. The history of the island is very unique, if you are interested in looking it up.
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Life and Death During the Age of Innocence, wood, fabric, 2003, installation: Grimshawn Gudewocz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts, USA, 40' x 10' x 13', photo: John Dowling. |
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Life and Death During the Age of Innocence, detail, wood, fabric, 2003, installation: Grimshawn Gudewocz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts, USA, photo: John Dowling. |
What did you take away from that residency and how have you changed as a consequence?
The one thing that I remember is the poverty on the island but also how happy the people were. They had very little but really enjoyed life. I realized that material things do not make one happy. I still enjoy my things here but also understand that I do not need so much.
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One Step for Our Children, photographs, mat gel, 2003, cast mat gel, 2,500 shoes prints, 105 photographs, installation: Lederer Gallery, Geneseo, New York, USA. |
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One Step for Our Children, detail, photographs, mat gel, 2003, cast mat gel 2,500 shoe prints, 105 photographs, installation: Lederer Gallery, Geneseo, New York, USA. |
In which ways did the residency in Ecuador differ from the local ones.
The other residencies have not been collaborative; they are mostly to make your own work. Most of the time you do not even meet the local people unless you go out and introduce yourself. At the McColl Center for Visual Art I was lucky to stop in at a local yarn store to buy some fleece. After speaking to the owner and telling her why I was there, she invited me to the knitting group that meet every Wednesday evening. Every Wednesday I went to the knitting group and met some wonderful women, they even fed me. They came to the closing event at the center, which was the first time they had been at the art center.
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Walking on the Stony Pathways, linen & cotton thread, 2012, crochet, 31" x43" x 1.5", photo: Ben Premeaux. |
What was the motivation for Rice is Life what was the message contained in this art installation?
While in Ecuador I spent one day with one of the artists on the mainland driving in the backcountry. I saw a large pile of rice that was at least 8ft. tall. There was a woman at Sculpture Space in Utica NY that was making rice bowls out of sushi rice. Also I remembered eating rice three times a day while at the residency in Ecuador. Those ideas came together and started me researching hunger. I had to experiment with how to make the bowls. It took many attempts to get the correct recipe.
My message was that rice feeds most people in the underdeveloped countries and there is moderate to severe hunger in the world. There are different colours of rice bowl that indicate the different levels of hunger. The bowls are suspended with one silk thread showing how fragile the world food supply is. There are over 7,000 threads that cascade to the floor, representing the roots, and the connections we have. Each bowl is connected to another showing that we are all interconnected.
Someone thought the threads on the ground also represented the highways, waterways and air routes that all overlap each other. The red thread though the bowls represents for me the vascular system that keeps us all alive.
At the end of the installation the public was invited to cut down a bowl in exchange for a donation of food to our local food bank. We collected over 200 cans of food.
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Under a Microscope, thread & insect pins, 2013, crochet, installation: Tyler Art Gallery, Oswego, New York, USA, 11' round x 1.75". |
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Under a Microscope, detail, thread & insect pins, 2013, crochet, installation: Tyler Art Gallery, Oswego, New York, USA, 2" crochet circler forms. |
Where did the inspiration come from for your Crystal installation?
I saw Tokujin Yoshioka crystal chairs (he did not share his recipe) and with the help of three chemists, I was able to make my own crystals. As I said before, sometimes the theme motivates my work, other times a material is the starting point for my work.
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Crystal, alum, velvet, 2009, grown crystals, installation: Ann Felton Multicultural Center, Syracuse, New York, USA , photo: David Broda. |
What message were you attempting to send with this project?
The message with Crystals is that children are beautiful and fragile. They also represent the ghost of the children that I had taken care of.
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Crystal, view from second room, alum, velvet, 2009, grown crystals, installation: Ann Felton Multicultural Center, Syracuse, New York, USA, photo: David Broda. |
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Crystal Tee Shirt, alum, 2009, grown crystals, 9" x 15.5" x5.5", photo: David Broda. |
You mention that it is important to captivate an audience to have them bond with the work to create a lasting memory. In what way do feel your work achieves this?
There have been times that I hear from people that have seen my work years before. I received an email from a curator five years after I had shown in her gallery, she told me about a person that had seen my work and still remembered it. A doctor friend had seen my Crystal installation and told me while he was on the witness stand for an abuse case, what came to mind was the Crystal pieces. There have been other times that I have met people and they tell me that they have seen this piece or that piece. It is such a complement that someone remembers my work many years later.
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Crystal Blouse, alum, 2009, grown crystals, 12.75" x 16" x 9.5", photo: David Broda. |
Is there a particular book that you draw inspiration from?
Most recently I have been inspired by Freshwater Algae by Hilda Canter-Lund and John WG Lund. This is the first time I have actually used a book to influence my work. The images in the book are so detailed with great colour and some wonderful drawings. I look at the images and think how I can recreate them in fibres either 2D or 3D.
My other inspirations are from everyday life, news, occurrences and materials.
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Crystal Vest, alum, 2009, grown crystals, 15" x 11" x 11", photo: David Broda. |
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Crystal Dress, alum, 2009, grown crystals, 15.5" x 8" x 15", photo: David Broda. |
Are there any specific historic or contemporary artists who have inspired you or influenced your work?
Ann Hamilton: her use of material and the installations that you actually become part of, and can part take in them too.
Christian Boltanski: his theme of the war and the mass destruction of so many people and his use of materials and lights to show this.
Annette Messager: her use of soft materials.
Louise Bourgeois: her use of such a broad scope of materials. How she made artwork and never stopped till she passed away. A great roll model for all women
Wolfgang Laib: his minimal use of materials that tell so much in such a simple but powerful way.
Magdalena Abakanowicz: her use of soft materials to tell her story of growing up in Poland during the war. Then to take those burlap figures and turn them into bronze so they will last forever.
Nick Cave: his material, his performances and installations are so breathtaking and beyond fashion or is it performance or is sculpture. His work crosses so many disciplines a true artist.
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Crystal Sundress, alum, 2009, grown crystals, 17" x 9" 13.5", photo: David Broda. |
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Crystal organic forms, alum, 2009, grown crystals, size varies, photo: David Broda. |
What interests you about the World of Threads Festival?
World of Threads Festival brings together exhibits. It shows the work in galleries and museum settings. Fibre has become more prevalent in artwork and The World of Threads Festival is showcasing this. If you look at Sculpture Magazine 30% of the work is now fibre related. To show work that is all about fibre gives the work the value it deserves.
You have been accepted into the World of Threads Festival 2014. What was your motivation for submitting?
I was motivated to submit since I believe my fibre work is very strong and should be included in fibre related exhibitions. I am thrilled that I can install A Functioning System. A friend of mine encouraged me to submit, I was not aware of this exhibition, after I researched it, I realized how important it is for the fibre art world.
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Mary Giehl's studio. |
Mary Giehl's studio. |
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Mary Giehl's studio. |
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Mary Giehl's studio. |
Is there something else you would like us to know about you or your work that we have not asked you?
There is one community project that I think I should mention, Connecting with
Something Warm. Last winter I began attending the local knitting groups and asking them to knit scarves for the community. I collected over 500 knitted items. They were placed in plastic bags with a postcard telling the finder that the item was a gift to them or to re-gift it to someone that needed it. The post cards were stamped and addressed to ArtRage Gallery in Syracuse. I spent a month setting the items out in all areas of Syracuse. They were placed on park benches, bus shelters, steps, and other locations. We received back about 20% of the postcards. At the opening of the event some of the finders came wearing their found item. I was amazed by the generosity of the people in Syracuse. I even received two boxes of scarves from a woman in North Carolina that had heard about the project. https://www.facebook.com/ConnectingWithSomethingWarm
The Language of Mixed-Media Sculpture by Jac Scott,
It gives insightful revelations of the creative journeys of ten renowned sculptors. I am one of them!
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Mary Giehl. |
Do you have any upcoming shows?
November/December 2015, Rice is Life will be re-installed at the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgewater, Connecticut, USA.
Under a Microscope, has been purchased for the University Hospital Cancer Center in Syracuse, New York, USA.
Marion Royael Gallery, Beacon, New York State, will exhibit new 2D works in October 2014.
I have an Art in residency at The Studios of Key West, Florida, USA this winter.
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