Textiles: Pillars of Community

December 3rd-21st, 2021, Kelsey Theater Gallery

Exhibition Statement:

In conversation with the covert sewing circles used for lesbian community building in the 19th and 20th centuries, Alexa’s practice is primarily concerned with the discourse between social network formation and the necessity of craft as a practice of survival and beauty. Problematizing the notion that objects which are accessible and necessary must be strictly pragmatic, Alexa playfully reimagines everyday objects as conduits of optimism, reverently calling back to motifs of lesbian oral history. In a society where homoerotic desire is relegated to the private sphere, Alexa challenges the notion of “respectable queerness” by inviting her audience to interact with intimate objects of her everyday life, blurring the line between private and public. In a bold reclamation of textile craft, Alexa invites her audience to collapse their conceptions of “subject” and “object,” and the “inherent” versus the “performed.” Alexa invites us to consider: How can we find joy in the ordinary?

- Grace Cline, Alexa’s girlfriend

This exhibition features work created by Alexa Sorensen in an independent study with John Sauer. Quotes throughout the exhibit are from “Folds, Fragments, Surfaces: Towards a Poetics of Cloth” by Pennina Barnett.

“Scrap Collages #1-20”

Fabric scraps, machine sewing

“This is a space of fragments, a space of the incomplete. But this is not a lack or a failure. Why tie up loose ends?”

“Tapestry, Vest”

Yarn, woven and knitted

“If “soft” suggests an elastic surface… that yields to pressure, that is not a weakness, for an object that gives in is actually stronger than one that resists, because it also permits the opportunity to be oneself in a new way.”

“Table Runner, Jacket”

Cloth, quoted and embroidered

“Cloth addresses the most intimate of senses: touch… while it is possible to see without being seen… to touch is always to be touched. And one never emerges intact from any encounter, for to be touched involves a capacity to be moved, ‘a power to be affected.’”

Selected original clothing designs

As I continue to design and sew clothing, my goal is to create pieces that express my femininity without being necessarily tied to the male gaze and patriarchal understandings of femininity.

Selected last textile work

I often use projects in other classes as opportunities to explore textile materials and processes. Here, I include a selection of past textile work as a starting point for my semester’s explorations.