Textile artist Marie Watt (Seneca) visits the C.N. Gorman Museum this week to do some sewing and give a talk — and to be the guest of honor at a reception for her exhibition Receiver, which opened at the museum in January and continues to March 14.
The artist talk and reception are scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday (Feb. 20).
Receiver includes wall hangings, textile towers and a work-in-progress: 408 linear feet of hand-stitched tapestries. Watt is just starting the two-year-long project, and will lead a sewing circle here, starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday (Feb. 19), and at other museums for help in creating the tapestry.
Its length matches the height of the Freedom Tower’s spire, and the length of the longest Haudenosaunee longhouse in the archaeological record. (Haudenosaunee is another name for Iroquois; a longhouse is a traditional, bark-covered house.)
The symbolism stems from Watt’s interest in Iroquois ironworkers’ significant contributions to the building of Manhattan skyscrapers, and from parallels that she sees between the dense community of the longhouse and the multifamily living units of the big city.
“Her ambitious sewing endeavor seeks to record and evoke authentic neighborly connections that occur in urban settings and tribal communities,” reads a postcard announcement from the museum.
C.N. Gorman Museum, 1316 . Regular hours: noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
• Haley Hauder — The recent art studio graduate won the Davis Art Salon’s first “community curates” competition, and, as her prize, she is presenting a show at the Nelson Gallery. Hauder works primarily in multimedia sculpture, inspired by nature, using natural materials to create whimsical, organic forms. Opening reception, 4-6 p.m. Friday (Feb. 21).
Nelson Gallery, . Regular hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and Saturday-Sunday (Fridays by appointment).
• Women Feeding the World — Twelve photos depicting women in a variety of roles related to food — from harvesting seaweed for export in Tanzania, to breastfeeding a baby in Davis — are on display in the (first floor, west corridor alongside the Coffee House).
The photos are among more than 80 submitted by students, faculty, staff and community members for a January program inspired by the , Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
“Women Feeding the World: Farmers, Mothers and CEOs,” held Jan. 21, comprised a panel discussion and a conversation with the audience — as well as the photos that can now be seen at the MU through the end of the winter quarter. You can see all of the 80-plus photo submissions in this online gallery.
The Office of Campus Community Relations, which oversees the Campus Community Book Project, co-sponsored “Women Feeding the World,” in association with several other °ϲĻϢ Davis units (World Food Center; Blum Center for Developing Economies; International Programs Office, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program; Program in International and Community Nutrition; and Women’s Resources and Research Center) and Freedom from Hunger, a Davis-based international organization.
Earlier coverage
Dateline °ϲĻϢ Davis (Jan. 13, 2014)
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu