Jade Walker

Cloud Shadows is a visual conversation between Margaret Meehan and Jade Walker drawing on years of friendship, shared research and visual interests. In their work both artists comment on how we live our lives and relate to others.

In Cloud Shadows at grayDuck Gallery, the artists continue their exploration of shared interests (femininity, nature, resistance, and acceptance). But instead of a literal collaboration on physical work, this exhibition was predicated on an ongoing dialogue about their intentions. How could they use their years of knowledge both as artists and friends to help the other challenge and grow individually? In addition to emails, materials and texts, Meehan and Walker also shared books and contemporary fairy tales that seemed to hold various human cycles while simultaneously connecting to other (many times wiser) creatures, such as birds and insects, of both this world and an imaginary space.

For Margaret Meehan the conversations, emails and shared packages of studio materials resulted in work that was about watching female friends from across her various lives and from multiple generations. Watching them have children and seeing those children grow. Watching friends try to have children or losing children and watching her own mother age. The new work is about being a(n) (-M)other. It’s about aging female. Sometimes R(aging) female. It's about life, mourning and loss. And for Meehan it’s about having a sense of humor inside it all.

Jade Walker’s textile-based work is infused with expanded materials and color choices, layered with a freedom to embrace her abstract storytelling methods. Her new body of work compares textile patterns, written text, and musical notation as linear systems of communication. Historical female knitters engaged in espionage during wartime, forward-thinking fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin and The Three Spinners, the historical notions of “women's work”, and the ways people all over the world rely on textiles to tell their story and the story of their ancestors have led to Walker’s investigation of how woven materials both hold notions of comfort and communication simultaneously.

This two person exhibition took place at grayDUCK Gallery in Austin, Texas: January 20 – March 3, 2024

To see more of Margaret Meehan's art: https://www.margaretmeehan.net/

Images by Scott Gordan

“The true mark of a long acquaintance with a single place is a readiness to accept uncertainty. You must not seek complete knowledge” Nan Shepherd from The Living Mountain

How we choose to engage the landscape and our environments ultimately links us to the spaces we inhabit. Do we lean into quietly embedding or do we climb high, lay stakes and attain? How do we achieve a fully lived body knowledge of a place? If we conquer a place and shape it to our needs, do we know it? Can we ever truly embed into a landscape? All of these questions point to the need for wayfinding as we navigate our planet for ourselves now and for future generations.

Influenced by the Modernist writer and poet, Nan Shepherd, nature writer and linguist, Robert Mcfarlane plus textiles as a form of universal language, Wayfinding, dives into two overlapping sets of ideas. The first being human’s opposing nature to attain or embed into a landscape and then how the result of this decision plays out in society. These two ideas intertwine in the form of tools or extension of the body, organic and consumer products fused, and weaving as a moment in between.

This solo exhibition was created for Women and Their Work Gallery and curated by Annette DiMeo Carlozzi with writing for the catalog provided by Emily Lee.

The sound of healthy birdsong indicates an environment that can hold life and support growth. As acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton shares, the human range of sound is a perfect match for birdsong: humans are uniquely able to hear bird sounds. As our world is facing physical demise and our society is in a state of revolution, we are finding a need to listen more closely and with intention for that sweet song, a beacon, an alert, and a beautiful signal of safety. We are on the lookout for this place the birds describe with their calls and whistles, their joyous melodies and protective chirps.

This site-specific installation was tucked into the Elisabet Ney Museum like a nest. A dividing structure asks the viewer to enter one door and face the bleak skeletons and thorny walls while the other entrance is filled with brightly colored woven pieces, symbolizing hope. Poised to battle while inviting a conversation, the installation calls attention to the posturing of Americans in the United States in 2021. The slingshot structures are made unusable by the woven insides while the wall treatment composed of Honey Lotus pose a bodily threat with thorns tough enough to be used as nails. The opposing wall is covered with a blanket-like weaving, reminiscent of a friendship bracelet or a shawl to be wrapped around the body for protection and warmth. This abstract exhibition is rooted in locating the necessary optimism while facing and acting upon ecological threats to our planet, political unrest, and the revolution for a more equal America. Locating the moments of the position we are in and doubling down on efforts to repair is the intention of Birdsong.

To move from abandoned to repopulation in a town that straddles two counties denotes the theme of lines to be crossed and invites an entryway. Threshold, is a solicitation to return to an antiquated architecture that has been without life for many years. Bright color and new vantage points shine on new possibilities for the floors, walls and ethos of the sleepy town. It is not enough to open the door, the artwork holds the door and activates the windows to expose hard pasts but also possibilities for dialogue.

Threshold is composed of materials local to Bartlett. From the original brick facades and street masonry to fabric collected from residents, the artwork offers this history and hopes for future back. Although generally improvised, the first official door stopper was created and patented by African American inventor, Osburn Dursey in 1878. We think of this simple device as a way to hold a door open but another is to keep a door from opening too widely. In the case of this installation, the hope is to open the space as wide as possible and hold that door for all that are interested in entering, a standing invitation for new prospects. All bricks were returned to the people of Bartlett in hopes that they could use them to keep their doors open.

The Bartlett Project is as an exhibition between a group of collaborating artists given freedom and license to activate an unused building in the historical downtown of Bartlett, Texas. The project was curated by Leslie Moody Castro and produced by ICOSA.

https://www.icosacollective.com/past/the-bartlett-project

Wrecked, Whacked, Warmed, and Weaved is based on ideas of warmth and comfort following injury, illness or trauma; a very human physical experience. A crutch is a tool utilized in various configurations in my artwork and marks vulnerability as well as acts as a symbol of strength. There is a similar duality in a woven blanket which is solid in its ability to strengthen through warmth while carrying connotations of hardship spread on the bed of a young child, distributed at the scene of an accident or across the lap of an elderly person. Both are household items that are relatable to all viewers and can return us all to nostalgic moments of recovering and also wellbeing.

The installation consists of 11 oversized crutches fabricated from white oak. Each was transformed into a loom and woven with yarn, thread, rope, string, hair, fabric, wire, plastic cord or cotton floss. The corner of the space is adorned with a wall covering created from an image of a hand embroidery used as my sketch for the woven crutches. The project was completed for the Facebook Artist in Residence program and curated by Leslie Moody Castro.

Using bright colors and diverse materials, Mire + Mend recognizes the challenges of the past year and offers awakening, communal experience, and soft materials to indicate hope about the future. The woven sculptures stand-in for traditional signage, exploring color and patterning in the place of language.

Mire + Mend continues a series of woven outdoor sign structures with the added feature of social engagement. As friends, family, neighbors, and community members joined in the weaving, they were invited to share optimism through collaboration.

Mire \ ˈmī(-ə)r \ noun

1. a troublesome or intractable situation; entangle

Recognize the state of this place and moment. Invite others to do the same. Disarm but do not forget to fight. Recognize the pathways that have led us here and take responsibility for the actions. There is an ask to look around you and situate yourself in the larger picture. Sit in the discomfort of the situation and notice the feeling.

Mend \ ˈmend \ transitive verb

1: to free from faults or defects: such as

a: to improve in manners or morals

b: to set right; correct

c: to put into good shape or working order again; repair

d: to improve or strengthen by negotiation or

e: to restore to health; cure

2: to make amends or atonement for

A mending is the completed object, a noun form of the word mend that we have not yet achieved. Build the pathways and provide a place to rest. Weave a cover and pull a sliver. Darn the holes and weed out the excess. Purge and line up. Form alliances and unite communities in the goal of true equality. Connect with your ancestors and act in the name of our future families. Be a good custodian to this earth and all that breathe. Acknowledge the breath.

Special thanks to the City of Austin Museums and Cultural Programs Division of the Parks Department, R & W Rope, Westech Rigging Supply, and the many weaving hands, especially Marsha Riti and August Stromberger.

Spring 2020

In the Arc of Your Mallet is the final installment of a two-part exhibition focusing on disease, healing and the inherently close union we have with our own bodies. Inspired by the poem of the same name as the exhibition by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born in 1207, the installation reflects the community of people that are necessary to thrive and the intimate and solitary bond we share with our physical selves. The first part of the exhibition is titled Little Soldiers. Both took place at Dimension Gallery in Austin, TX. Special thanks to each person that loaned their mallet for the exhibition.

Fall 2019

We each find tonal shifts in the skin we inhabit, from the underside of our feet to the tender skin at our wrists. As our largest organ and one that is so tightly stitched to our identities, these shifts in the color of our skin are important but sometimes not detected until examined. Isolating a swatch of color from our bodies and remixing various samples create an overall palette and allow an insight into the complexity of our identity, our heritage, and the social weight both carry.

Heartfelt is specially crafted for and inspired by the wearer of the work, Robert Jackson Harrington. He provided six color samples of his skin from a Sherwin Williams color deck, which were used to create the shades of the work. The shape repeated in each of the six fabric books references a birthmark or “Mark of Royalty” Robert wears. The Museum of Pocket Art is housed in the pocket of the director and can be entered upon request. Each book is housed in a specially made pocket in the legs of the pants. In addition, the pants are adorned with other markings that make up the work such as a hemmed pocket, monogramed interior pockets and small pick stitches along seams.

Spring 2019

Little Soldiers is the first of a two-part exhibition examining the struggle to fight off disease in our bodies. Concepts of breakdown and repair as well as the unknown of each run through the installation. Caretaking, healing and the community we surround ourselves with can determine how we physically change throughout our lives. The second part of this installation is titled The Arc of Your Mallet scheduled for January 2020. Each are site-specific projects at Dimension Gallery.

 Along with the first installation, two public programs accompanied the exhibition both taking place at Dimension Gallery. Makers Trade consisted of an afternoon spent with a group of 12 artists with the initial request for each to provide a dozen handmade objects to exchange. The intention of the day was to connect new people and expand each of our social circles. The second event was a body casting workshop led by Erin Cunningham, a local artist and educator well versed in the ways of casting. https://www.erincunninghamart.com/

Special thanks to the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division for support of this project.

Summer 2011

After spending a year in Japan visiting many public baths or onsens, notions of aging and the bodies unique mark of growing old filled my mind.  A weekly visit to a local bath introduced me to a local family. They were three generations of women each moving through various stages of life. Quadri-Poise is based on the fragility of the body and ways the female body ages. The installation is filled with references to the action of support and the necessity to be ‘propped’ up are found in the structures in the room.

Quadri-Poise was created for the Texas Biennial 2011 curated by Virginia Rutledge and exhibited as a solo exhibition at Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, TX.

Spring /Summer 2013

Reflections on identity, authorship, memory and ritual in art production, transFIGURATION, was a visual arts collaborative project that included elements of performance. It was based on a concept developed by photographer Rino Pizzi, and unfolded as a process of exchanges, transformation and appropriation in collaboration with 11 visual artists covering a wide range of backgrounds in the Austin and Texas community--Jill Bedgood, Benito Huerta, Catherine Lee, Shea Little, Michelle Meyer, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Margo Sawyer, Shawn Smith, Jana Swec, Jade Walker, and Steve Wiman. The project developed along three stages, including the making of a photographic portrait of each artist, a series of public events and performances (presented by Fusebox Festival 2013), and the development of the final artwork, that was shown in a group exhibition at Big Medium, Austin. 

Spring 2010 

As the viewer is confronted with such a large structure in the room, their place as the viewer and participant is exchanged. The inspiration for this work was based on a book by reporter Michael Sokolove titled, Warrior Girls, focusing on the fight for women in sports and how these athletes are trained from the vantage point of male athletes. Spectator Sport is a site-specific installation, consisting of 49 individual sculptures covering a standard set of bleachers in a 31′ X 21′ gallery in the Austin Museum of Art’s New Works Space.  

2011

Material samples, prototypes and objects of curiosity fill the walls of my studio. Each project brings along a new color scheme along with new material learning curves resulting in samples and remnants in its wake. For this installation, I compiled these bits to find new meaning among one another and to witness a visual history of my practice.  This collection was shared as part of the Peoples Gallery in Austin’s City Hall.

Fall 2010

As a non-athlete, I find the gear necessary to play sports compelling as both a way to protect the body and in many ways mimic or enhance our natural movements. These objects carry their  own language and for those that have committed to sports practices, it can mark moments in a personal history with their body’s development. Along with the weight of these moments, the male domination in sports and the social status athletes carry is one that Trophy Room addresses.

This site-specific installation was created for Domy Books in Austin, TX.  The installation consists of 11 panels of vacu-formed panels that cover the 11′ X 11′ room.

2005

There is comfort in the home but also a sense of limitation or constraint. The social stigma of a women’s place in the home and patriarchal histories have shaped notions of the home. This series consists of seventy-five small fabric statues that fill a home. They were created both as a way to sample materials being consist to recreate a chosen form as well as create a family of sorts. In addition to the objects, the pieces or in my mind..small creatures, were photographed in a domestic setting as a way to further animate them.

This series was created for a solo project at Conduit Gallery in Dallas, TX.

This series was created for a solo project at Conduit Gallery in Dallas, TX.

2005-2010

Pairing mass-produced everyday objects as extensions of our bodies and the perception of the human form has evoked the Figure series currently consisting of seven works. This work pulls color and imagery from 1960’s health texts, shapes from 1900’s anatomy texts, and content from contemporary periodicals and American culture. Many of the works reference the failure of the body and the temporal methods for repair. Discovering synthetic materials that suggest human composition fuses the binaries of natural and mass produced while focusing on conveying a sense of meekness in the injured figure and induce empathy in the viewer.

Individual works were shown in various venues in Texas and the entire grouping was displayed at Lawndale Art Center in Houston.

2004

This series of soft sculptures was constructed from men’s neck ties and reinstalled in various configurations over a dozen times. Removing a very iconic symbol such as the power tie and reforming playful, funny objects that contain remnants of the human bodies sag and form was intended to give the viewer a moment to reconsider the position of women and men in the workplace during the first part of the 21st century. The installation was reimagined for a private collection in 2012.

Elsewhere residency, Greensboro, NC  2007

Excavation

The unique constraints at this particular residency requested artists only work with materials provided in the space and to closely consider its history. Excavation was am experiment on restoring a bathroom in the three-floor dilapidated store front, once used as a thrift store and boarding house, with only the fabric found in the stores aging inventory. The space was used for storage for over 2 decades, so part of the project was of discovery and then reconstruction with new material considerations. 

http://www.goelsewhere.org/

Under

Commission by Ronald McDonald House Austin TX 2009

This work reflects an interest in the some-what recognizable forms that hibernate under the blankets. The forms are reminiscent of contour maps, body forms and playgrounds covered in a sea of fabric. Under is a work commissioned by the Ronald McDonald House in Austin and installed from the ceiling in the main stairwell of the house.

This is a collection of individual works created for group exhibitions.