As a writer, reader, and fiber artist, I ground my artistic practice in the relationship between text and textile. I expand into this research in the echoes of writers such as Danielle Dutton and Amina Cain, by approaching literary ekphrasis not as a one-directional “writing about art”, but as a mutual, conversational, multi-directional dialogue between art and language. Textiles, specifically, are linked to text not only through their shared etymology, but through their basic processes: in both cloth and prose, lines are woven, crossed, and layered over each other to create webs of narrative. I recognize the gridded and linear structures of both writing and cloth as armatures on which to “catch” and physicalize the felt experience. As writer Eileen Myles states: “the poem is a grid — that swayed, and moving through it you picked up things and hung them on the grid all the while singing your broken heart out.”
I make grid-based sewn works of art, utilizing a minimal color palette to foreground structure and negative space. I relate back to my literary influences primarily through hand-written transcription of text, and by constructing letterforms out of traditional Korean Bojagi seamwork. The text I work with is “caught” in the nets of stitched lines, dissolved into fray, sewn into seams, or looped back onto itself in knitted structures. Layers of transparency partially reveal words, allowing for moments of discovery through light, shadow, and careful looking. Through this integration, I transform language from a vehicle for direct communication into one for reflective contemplation.
In meeting at the intersecting node of writing and art, my practice relies on relational thinking and cross-disciplinary approaches. I sew, write, read, teach, and learn, all at this intersection.
Bio
Dagny Rayn Chika (they/she) is a fiber artist, writer, and educator. She has spent most of her life in the Pacific Northwest: growing up in the Seattle area and then attending Western Washington University where they studied both Creative Writing and Physics. They recently received their MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fibers and Material Studies. She is currently serving as the Fiber Fellow at Colorado College.
Chika is honored to have recently been part of group exhibits at Common Area Maintenance (Seattle, Washington) and The Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, Colorado), and her visual work and writing have been published online and in print through multiple publications, including recently The Kingfisher Magazine and Subo Art Magazine.