This summer the American Folk Art Museum in New York showed the work of quilt artist Paula Nadelstern. The landmark program was the first exhibition of work by an art quilter in a major US gallery.
Nadelstern’s repeat block format is based around repeating segments of a circle, and the interaction of selected textile print fabrics to create visual anomalies. She is inspired by the ever shifting forms in Kaleidoscopes and the ever-changing crystaline formations of snowflakes. The relationship of one fabric patch to another is controlled by the geometric parameters that can be taken out of a shape with a 360° limit at it’s core .
On display were a remarkable selection of creations by some of the country’s finest Kaleidoscope makers. Many of these ‘mechanisms’ hold found objects that are manipulated with light and motion to achieve mesmerizing tessellated patterns. Of particular interest was Oddysey#2, a piece by Charles Karadimon, a master kaleidoscope maker since 1975, who hand crafts all the mechanisms, glass and construction himself. Another interesting piece; ‘Honey Jar’ by Henry Bergeson . A catalogue and other publications are available at the museum shop.
Found materials and gathered matter is the construct of many a patch-worked textile as it is also with the ‘contents’ that create the patterns in a Kaleidoscope. It seems fitting that there is a dialogue between the two mediums, both operating on the same principle of playing with the ‘found’.
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- “Odyssey”
