Newbury College Faculty Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue
Winter 2004

Sophia Ainslie’s work currently located on the lawn in front of the Academic Center, is part of Newbury’s Arthur Birkland and New England School of Art & Design at Suffolk University’s Charles Giulliano’s co-curated arts collaborative.

Their exhibit seeks to explore fibers as an artistic medium. The work of artists such as Sophia Ainslie uses alternative fibers such as plastic, hemp and metal to encourage dialogue about form, materials and social issues.

Ainslie’s work, which is constructed from plastic containers from a recycling yard, is intended to challenge the viewers’ ideas about waste and consumption and to allow the viewer to see form and materials in a new way. She describes her motivations by stating “I want people to see the amount of garbage that is created, that gets taken and tucked away, neatly out of sight; But it is important that I take the garbage out of its intended site and into our world of order. The displacement and juxtaposition creates the tension, the edge that I seek.”

The work of Ainslie and the other artists included in the exhibit gives the Newbury community an opportunity that rarely exists in modern busy lives, an opportunity to stop, think, and view works which may challenge our conventional views.

The larger art community has also acknowledged the strength of this exhibit. An article entitled “Fiver Artists Ask, Sew What?” which appears in the current Winter issue of Arts Media states that “Ultimately, Stitches is a show that changes ideas.” The article goes on to state “And whether they raise our awareness or poke fun at our lifestyles, their [the artists’] work challenges us to think deeply about how we live, who we are, and why.”

The exhibit opened first at Suffolk University on January 16 and will run through February 7th. The Newbury installations will remain until February 28th in the Academic Center Library at Newbury College.

By Rachel Beerman