Amanda McCavour discovered her unique thread art process by trial and error. “I wanted to do a piece that appeared to have floating thread, but I originally didn’t have a process for it,” says McCavour, who applied classic embroidery techniques to create her flowers and plants.
Photo by Hillary Schave
Amanda McCavour discovered her unique thread art process by trial and error. “I wanted to do a piece that appeared to have floating thread, but I originally didn’t have a process for it,” says McCavour, who applied classic embroidery techniques to create her flowers and plants.
Once she stitches her designs with colored thread, she dissolves the paper, leaving an interconnected web of plant imagery whose structure, thanks to the thread’s tensile strength, proves surprisingly strong.
Photo by Hillary Schave
Once she stitches her designs with colored thread, she dissolves the paper, leaving an interconnected web of plant imagery whose structure, thanks to the thread’s tensile strength, proves surprisingly strong.
Although she lives in Canada, McCavour’s exhibit was inspired by a 2019 visit to the UW–Madison campus, including the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection in the School of Human Ecology, several Chazen collections and the Wisconsin State Herbarium in the department of botany’s Birge Hall.
Photo by Hillary Schave
Although she lives in Canada, McCavour’s exhibit was inspired by a 2019 visit to the UW–Madison campus, including the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection in the School of Human Ecology, several Chazen collections and the Wisconsin State Herbarium in the department of botany’s Birge Hall.
McCavour used a digital printer to transform her textiles into their current epic scale, then built a massive custom board to iron the fabric onto mesh.
Photo by Hillary Schave
McCavour used a digital printer to transform her textiles into their current epic scale, then built a massive custom board to iron the fabric onto mesh.
Each hanging is 3.5 to 30 feet high and 55 inches across, and most are hung from a single point, resulting in a kinetic work that spins with each breath of air. Each of Chazen’s three floors offers a different vantage point.
Photo by Hillary Schave
Each hanging is 3.5 to 30 feet high and 55 inches across, and most are hung from a single point, resulting in a kinetic work that spins with each breath of air. Each of Chazen’s three floors offers a different vantage point.
Magnifying glasses are available at the exhibit for closer inspection.
Photo by Hillary Schave
Photo by Hillary Schave
Photo by Hillary Schave
Photo by Hillary Schave
Photo by Hillary Schave
Cascades of massive botanical images drape the modernist marble architecture of Paige Court in the Chazen Museum of Art. It’s Wisconsin’s native flora writ large — enormous, really — by Canadian embroiderer and artist Amanda McCavour, whose devotion to nature is mirrored only by the seeming magic of her process.
“Suspended Landscapes: Thread Drawings by Amanda McCavour” runs through Sept. 11 in the lobby of the museum’s Elvehjem Building on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The exhibit is a combination of imagery in both actual and monumental sizes. Plants spun from thread appear to hover without evident support, inviting viewers to walk under, rather than through, fields of wildflowers.
“I want viewers to notice the plant life around us and understand just where we fit into this world,” McCavour says. “I believe we save these kinds of genetic materials for the future, but at the same time they enable us to look back. I wanted a piece with a suspended reality, but I also wanted surrealism and a dreamy sort of place.”
Michael Muckian is a contributing writer for Madison Magazine. Reach him at mmuckian@icloud.com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
