Holding Pattern
A Group Show Co-Curated By Members of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville
Featuring Danielle Burke, April Dauscha, Nneka Kai, Elysia Mann Keysha Rivera, and Skye Tafoya
March 4 – April 15, 2023
Public Reception: Friday, March 10, 2023, 5:00 - 7:30 pm
Over the past decade, the value of what we call “technology" became largely correlated with its ability to gather and hold information — data. Today — in algorithms and AI, science and social media — the highest value is assigned to technologies that hold data and the stories that can be derived from it to give it meaning.
But is this really new? Holding Pattern examines how fiber arts helped create the template for our current understanding of what makes a technology valuable, and how contemporary works deserve consideration as technologies that hold both data and story. And, while fiber artwork that employs contemporary digital is usually framed as doing something “new,” it actually reveals a relationship that already existed.
Tiger Stikes Asteroid is a non-profit network of artist-run exhibition spaces in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Greenville, S.C. From their website: “The core of our mission is our exhibition program at our five locations. Each site curates independently; at the same time, the network functions collectively through programming exchanges and the sharing of resources, connections and governing structure. While our unique, grassroots organization of spaces in multiple locations allows us to curate exhibitions that are sensitive to the needs and interests of their respective cities, our geographic reach also offers opportunities to connect local artists to a national conversation. Through a model of horizontal, rather than vertical growth, we are trying to rethink the way an arts institution can work, providing more space and opportunities rather than consolidating time and resources into a single space or vision. We want to create a true network of artists, a dynamic exchange of ideas between cities and an enriched dialogue at each space.”
Elysia Mann
Elysia Mann is a studio technician at the University of Tennessee and is a member of Knoxville’s Relay Ridge community studios and printshop. She was the co-founder of a collaborative print shop in St. Louis called All Along Press where she published fine art prints and letterpress editions. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Tennessee. Her work combines print, textile, and poetry and has been shown nationally including upcoming exhibitions at the KMAC Museum in Louisville and Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Greenville. Website: elysiaaileenmann.com.
April Dauscha
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, April Dauscha, received her BFA in fashion design at the International Academy of Design and Technology and her MFA in fiber from Virginia Commonwealth University. April is on the board of directors for the Surface Design Association (SDA) and is one of the founding members of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Greenville (TSA GVL). She has been represented by Page Bond Gallery in Richmond, Virginia and has recently exhibited as part of the Uneasy Beauty: Discomfort in Contemporary Adornment exhibition at the Fuller Craft Museum and as part of the, Adornment: Beauty in Excess at the Walton Arts Center. Her work has also been featured on art blogs such as Beautiful Decay, Ignant and Issue No.206. She is currently spearheading a brand-new fiber arts program as instructor and area head at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, South Carolina.
Danielle Burke
B. 1993, Denver, CO, currently living in Madison, WI. Danielle Burke is an artist and folklorist. She studies textiles, craft pedagogy, and artist communities; her studio practice focuses primarily on the practice of weaving. She is currently a PhD candidate in Design Studies with a focus in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Nneka Kai
Nneka Kai is an interdisciplinary artist from Atlanta, GA, whose practice is rooted in the exploration of personal and archival narratives through the material of hair. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a research assistant at the Textile Resource Center. There she explored the history and conservation aspects of textiles within the Fiber & Material Studies collection. Not seeing herself represented in the objects, she decided to research the peripherals of textiles, in hopes of uncovering Black women’s material sensibilities throughout the diaspora. She also received her BFA from Georgia State University, where her material studies sparked her curiosity for hair. Currently, Nneka’s studio practice explores these findings through fiber, sculpture, and performance works, emphasizing methods of abstraction and opacity. She has performed her works in Chicago, Atlanta, and North Carolina. In 2021, Nneka exhibited in the Hair Stories Exhibition at The Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island. She is currently working as an art teacher while exploring her home in Atlanta, Georgia as a site of Black presence and preservation.
Keysha Rivera
Keysha Rivera is a textile and media artist of Afro-Indigenous ancestry. Rivera combines traditional craft and contemporary digital technologies. Her work revolves around cultural preservation and the configuration of displaced histories.
Her work being rooted in the connection of material and process, she creates soft sculptures, paintings, and installations that point to the conversation around the vulnerability of home, Caribbean identity and the tenderness of memory and remembrance.
Her familial research acts as a guide for the creation of works. By centering Puerto Rican liberation, her art functions as a contemporary form of resistance to the present-day realities.
Skye Tafoya
Skye Tafoya is an Indigenous artist from the Eastern Band Cherokee and Santa Clara Pueblo tribes. Her tribal heritage and lineage are significant components continuously present within her artwork. Skye comes from a lineage of basket-weavers, both paternal and maternal, and also used to make red willow baskets with her dad. Skye continues to use paper-weaving processes to honor her loved ones and ancestors. Her meticulously crafted designs, patterns, prints, and weavings are influenced by basketry and contain themes of cultural teachings, Cherokee language preservation, motherhood and personal & family narratives. Skye creates with the intention of archiving, preserving and sharing stories, language, culture, and experiences.
Skye published her first artist book, Ul’nigid’, in the spring of 2020 and has exhibited work nationally and internationally in Russia. Her work is also housed in many special collections including the U.S. Library of Congress, Kohler Art Library, and the Bainbridge Museum of Art. She received her BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM and her MFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR.
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