Fabric Figures (July 12 – Aug. 31, 2013)

Luke Haynes’ works reflects his investigation of nostalgia and function. He works with quilts because they embody these subconsciously while lending a unique materiality to the process and resultant product. His work contains disparate pieces of fabric and create a cohesive final product that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Within contemporary quilt making people are exploring ways of using fabric as a medium for both functional quilts as well as wall hangings. The resultant dialogue between quilting as a pastime of assembling purchased fabrics and quilting as a skill of constructing usable objects from unusable cloth reflects a current societal tension. For each viewer the alchemy is within the craftsmanship and creative eye of the quilter and their work, as demonstrated in the Gee’s Bend quilts. They were brought into national attention as they toured the country through contemporary art museums and galleries. Those quilts constructed for warmth from overused cloth became intriguing art objects.

Luke is interested in the choices we make to express ourselves to our world. The most apparent form of this is our clothes. We create an environment around ourselves to inform others how we desire to be perceived. By quilting Luke is initiating a dialogue between the immediate environments we create for ourselves, and the environments we inhabit. Where cloth, what we know to respond to as clothes, becomes the language of his work. The cloth becomes the medium used to create images and scenes rather than conceal and contain.

Luke asks the viewer to reexamine quilts and cloth in my work. By viewing the pieces you the viewer will take away a new understanding of craft and function, as well as art and materiality.

To see more of Luke Haynes' artwork, visit Luke's Studio on the web and on Facebook

Click image below to view complete quilt.

[The American Context #5] Flag 2012 (108" x 198") Luke Haynes

The Flag is one of the greatest icons of our country. I went to find the fabric to construct a flag from discarded clothing instead I found a garrison flag ripped and stained from long use. I took it and used the material to reconstruct a flag allowing the material to dictate the star placement and show the wear the flag had taken on by its use.
[The American Context #15] Summer Evening 2012 (90" x 90") Luke Haynes

Edward Hopper paints a couple of seeming teenagers on the porch during a summer night. The people pictured in the reproduction are in the posture which speaks to their true interactions in life. The background in mine is a red rather than a white on black to allude to the tention in the real-life scenario.
[The American Context #14] Madam X 2012 (90" x 90") Luke Haynes

This is my Quilt adaptation of the John Singer Sargent Painting of Madame X. I have used the posture but not the subject. I have taken a friend and asked her to stand for the portrait. The background is made of recycled clothing in a traditional quilt pattern.
[Friends #1] Amelie 2012 (106" x 90") Luke Haynes

This was an image from the circus. The background becomes geometric and exists more as a frame and a depth indicator. The scale is large to accommodate the complexity of the features.
[On My Bed #2] Cover 2007 (105" x 105") Luke Haynes

This is the second in my yearly series of making a bed quilt with me on it and using it for a year. I slept under this quilt for the year 2007. The figure is life size.

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