mobius

Flickr photos - Catherine Tutter

 

Spinning a Yarn <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4438743762" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Photo: © Nan Palmer (2010) - I utilize the ancient Japanese process &#039;shifu&#039; (literally, woven paper) in my investigation of ritual and performative dimensions of writing, cutting, separating, and spinning, engaging the body as a locus of transformation. This ball of yarn constitutes a collection of hand-written dedications and remembrances that I spun into a continuous skein. It will be used as material in a collaborative book project.</span>Yarn on a spindle, yarn on shuttle <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4406865417" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Photo by © Nan Palmer (2010) - I employ the ancient Japanese process &#039;shifu&#039; (literally, woven paper) in response to the etymology of textile and text, both words stemming from the Latin root meaning &#039;to weave&#039;. From spindle to shuttle, these yarns originated as written texts, transformed through actions of cutting, separating, binding/unbinding, soaking, spinning and journeying through the warps of a loom in the final action of weaving. </span>Woven shifu sample <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4407632354" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Photo by © Nan Palmer (2010) - I employ the ancient Japanese process &#039;shifu&#039; (literally, woven paper) in response to the etymology of textile and text, both words stemming from the Latin root meaning &#039;to weave&#039;. This woven sample holds three distinct textual meditations on awagami mulberry paper and spun with a drop spindle. The yarns are woven on a rigid heddle loom with a cotton warp. The sample was created in preparation for a congregational weaving project, where members are weaving their family histories and personal narratives in a Torah binder, or &#039;wimpel&#039; - a ritual textile that binds the sacred text.</span>Spinning a yarn <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4407631818" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Photo by © Nan Palmer (2010) - I employ the ancient Japanese process &#039;shifu&#039; (literally, woven paper) in response to the etymology of textile and text, both words stemming from the Latin root meaning &#039;to weave&#039;. This image illustrates the transitional stages of creating spun yarn from written text. I consider the ritualistic and performative dimensions of writing, cutting, separating, binding/unbinding, and spinning. Integral to this latter process is the passage of the paper through water.</span>Songs of Forgotten Ancestors <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4398749759" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Catherine Tutter (MAG) - Image from Songs of Forgotten Ancestors (1996) - Performed at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonThis performance was enacted to invoke and honor the souls of generations of Arab women, all excluded from my mother&#039;s genealogical narrative. The rolled family tree in my hands dates back over 700 years. </span>Abject/Object (Public entering tent of mourning) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4383208614" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">image from Abject/Object (Mobius commission, 2006), situated contextually in the War in IraqPhoto by © Bob Raymond -Artists Mari Novotny-Jones, Catherine Tutter, Anna Wexler - public performance/eventParticipants are invited to enter the tent, a locus of remembrance and renewal, one at a time. This Mobius-commissioned work was realized Memorial Day weekend on Boston City Hall Plaza.</span>Abject/Object (tent of mourning) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4383200152" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Installation component of Abject/Object (Mobius commission, 2006), situated contextually in the War in Iraq. Performance site is Boston City Hall Plaza, Memorial Day weekend.Photo: © Bob Raymond - Artists Mari Novotny-Jones, Catherine Tutter and Anna Wexler - mould pattern: Dennis FriedlerThis tent interior was created as a locus of generation and renewal, functioning as a healing environment for individuals to mourn and remember lost lives, known and unknown. The site was intended to act as a counterforce to the oppressive forces of military-industrial mass production, as embodied through the ritualized casting of wax figures in an eight-hour durational performance.</span>Abject/Object (public participation) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4382389187" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Image from Abject/Object (Mobius commission, 2006), situated contextually in the War in Iraq. Sited on Boston City Hall Plaza.Artists Mari Novotny-Jones, Catherine Tutter, and Anna Wexler - Photo: © Dennis FriedlerChildren wait their turn to enter a tent interior with ritually-cast wax spirit figures. Participants were invited to occupy the interior one at a time for some moments of quiet and reflection.</span>Abject/Object (interior detail) <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4295540267" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Photo: © Dennis Friedler (2006) - Artists Mari Novotny-Jones, Catherine Tutter, Anna Wexler - mould pattern by Dennis Friedler -Generated by a durational performance involving ritualized casting, these wax figures were offered to pedestrians on Memorial Day weekend, Boston City Hall Plaza, to take with them into a darkened tent interior. Individuals could choose to seal their intentions by writing on tags to remember individuals lost in the war.</span>Songs of Forgotten Ancestors <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4204586788" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Catherine Tutter (MAG) - Image from Songs of Forgotten Ancestors (1996) - Performed at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - This performance was enacted to invoke and honor the souls of generations of Arab women, all excluded from my mother&#039;s genealogical narrative. The family tree shown here dates back over 700 years. </span>Eitz Chayim congregants spin their stories on Rosh Hashanah <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4200585391" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Image from Spinning a Jewish Yarn Photo: © Stanley Sagov (2009)Working at the intersection of art and religion, Catherine has been an artist-in-residence with a local Jewish congregation since 2001. She is presently leading this community in &#039;Spinning and Weaving a Jewish Yarn&#039;, a project involving the physical transformation of family histories in a collectively-woven Torah binder. She is simultaneously engaged in the solitary fabrication of a Torah mantle, an undertaking that pushes Catherine’s investigation of ritual action to its outermost limits, as she considers the significance of ceremonial dress and the action of covering/uncovering an object of infinity. </span>Spinning a Jewish Yarn <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4200585285" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Image from Spinning a Jewish Yarn Photo: © Stanley Sagov (2009)Working at the intersection of art and religion, Catherine has been an artist-in-residence with Congregation Eitz Chayim (Cambridge, MA) since 2001. She is presently leading this community in &#039;Spinning and Weaving a Jewish Yarn&#039;, a project involving the physical transformation of family histories in a collectively-woven Torah binder. Families of all ages recorded their personal stories on Japanese mulberry paper and learned how to cut, separate, soak and spin the paper into yarn for weaving. </span>Abject/Object press photo <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4200586863" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Press photo for Abject/Object (Mobius commission, 2006), situated contextually in the War in Iraq - Mari Novotny-Jones, Catherine Tutter, Anna Wexler - public performance/event - Photo: © Dennis Friedler- Interactive performance and mixed-media installation with plaster, wax, newspapers and flowers. It took place Memorial Day Weekend 2006, Boston City Hall Plaza - Using ritualized manufacture as our core performative process, this piece distills and deconstructs histories of military-industrial production. Our ritual production will involve intensely focused and systematized acts of mass-production, imagined as embodied cycles of creation and destruction. As performance, our physical process is durational, without beginning or end, just as the war machine generates production into perpetuity. We have chosen to create a space of regeneration here, with living plant matter gathered to create a locus of renewal - persisting against planned obsolescence (of all species).</span>Songs of Forgotten Ancestors <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4200586343" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Catherine Tutter (MAG) - Image from Songs of Ancestors (1996) - Performed at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - This performance was enacted to invoke and honor the souls of generations of Arab women, all excluded from my mother&#039;s genealogical narrative, dating back over 700 years.</span>Spinning a Jewish Yarn <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4201338972" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Image from Spinning a Jewish Yarn (2009)Photo: © Dennis FriedlerWorking at the intersection of art and religion, Catherine has been an artist-in-residence with a local Jewish congregation since 2001. She is presently leading this community in Spinning and Weaving a Jewish Yarn, a project involving the physical transformation of family histories in a collectively-woven Torah binder. Employing an ancient Japanese process called shifu, the recorded histories and personal narratives of congregants are recorded on paper and spun into yarn, here shown drying on paper cones.</span>Spinning a Jewish Yarn <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobiusorg/4201339028" target="_blank">(view photo on flickr.com)</a> <br /><span class="description">Image from Spinning a Jewish Yarn Photo by © Stanley Sagov (2009)Working at the intersection of art and religion, Catherine has been an artist-in-residence with Congregation Eitz Chayim (Cambridge, MA) since 2001. She is presently leading this community in &#039;Spinning and Weaving a Jewish Yarn&#039;, a project involving the physical transformation of family histories in a collectively-woven Torah binder. She is simultaneously engaged in the solitary fabrication of a Torah mantle, an undertaking that pushes Catherine’s investigation of ritual action and its relation to the sacred to its outermost limits, as she considers the significance of ceremonial dress and the action of covering/uncovering an object of infinity. </span>