Soft Architecture

“If architecture is the language of concrete and steel, then Soft Architecture needs a vocabulary of flesh, air, fabric and color. It’s about civic surface and natural history. It’s about social space, clothing, urban geography, visual art and the intersection of all these.”

 — Lisa Robertson, Occasional Works and Seven Walks from the Office of Soft Architecture

Locations can often carry lingering memories or associated feelings. Can you recall a moment when an architectural place held space for you or supported you in some way? Perhaps an empty parking lot where you’ve collected yourself or braced yourself for the worst…a place where you felt comfortable enough to let yourself experience vulnerability, or safe enough to cry in public?

Soft Architecture is a group exhibition that brings together artists Ashley Freeby, Jacob Goble & Hope Wang in an investigation of the relationship between architectural spaces and grief. All three artists move fluidly between mediums, working in soft materials such as quilting, weaving and fibers, as well as more rigid materials such as sculpture and artist’s books.

Freeby’s work documents the death and memory of Black bodies killed by law enforcement. She explores sections of surface, land, location and asphalt to shift perspectives and recall the memory of lives lost. Research based and labor-intensive, her practice methodically catalogs these sites of trauma. In Freeby’s piece to Atatiana Koquice Jefferson, quilting becomes an act of healing for the artist. Viewers find comfort in her quilted works as they draw you in, asking us to acknowledge, reflect and grieve – creating space for collective healing.

From the small town of Alton, Missouri, Goble’s fiber works and artist’s books are inspired by narratives of his grandmother, familial memory, and the constructions of one’s childhood – both joyful and traumatic. Goble’s new works, such as Local Ordinary, a queen size quilt made from robes and cassocks worn by priests, examine the mental and physical architecture of the Catholic church and the ways he deconstructs their veiled ideologies. His geometric patterns continue his family’s quilting legacy, as he creates works with the vintage Singer sewing machine his uncle handed down to him.

Wang’s weavings treat the architectural spaces of parking lots, roads, and sidewalks as sites of grief and longing. Her work considers the scars of human activity left in the asphalt like wounds, approaching the structural environment as something malleable and flesh-like – “of bodies or ghosts.” Wang’s series, throwing a glance in the sliver between draws from imagery of seemingly empty storefronts. Her woven illusions and infinity artist’s books depict reflections of the artist, pedestrians and shuttered spaces filled with familiar motifs like blue tape, brown paper, plastic sheets and the texture of the CTA subway platform.

Through this group exhibition, these works collectively consider the relationship between author Lisa Robertson’s idea of soft architectural space and tender emotions. The exhibition feels poignant as we collectively continue to process BLM protests invigorated by the loss of too many black lives, loss due to COVID-19, the violent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and ongoing mass-shootings across America. Soft Architecture invites viewers to connect to their own experiences and feelings of loss, holding space for the larger UGA and local Athens community.

— Ciel Rodriguez, Curator

Bios:

Designer, artist and truth-teller, Ashley M. Freeby (b. 1986) uses natural materials, poetic language and minimalism to explore site, monuments, and data as a way of investigating the essence of memory and trauma. Unbound by medium, she allows her work to be centered by research, and truthful and uncensored narratives. Her recent project, (un)sterile soil, is a virtual installation of content where she highlights her work from 2016 to 2020, and collaborates with seven writers or artists to create a website over seven installments. (un)sterile soil, like much of Freeby’s work, is about the death and memory of Black bodies killed by law enforcement. She explores sites from above to below the surface to shift perspective and retain the memory for those lives lost. Freeby is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, currently resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is the Communications Director and Head Designer for Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency. To learn more about the artist’s work visit www.ashleyfreeby.com and www.unsterilesoil.online.
Jacob Goble lives and works as a graphic designer in Chicago, Illinois. He is fulfilled by providing identity design for small businesses, like Sunhouse Craft, and socially focused organizations, like Mobile Makers, who have fueled his curiosity for craft and placemaking. In his artistic practice, Goble combines design thinking with traditional craft, passed down generationally, to explore the complex interconnected nature of family and place. His work considers the impact of intergenerational ideology on the formation of personal identity, expression, and love. Goble received his BFA in Visual Communication Design in 2016 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently works at Media-Objectives. www.media-objectives.com

Hope Wang is an artist, arts facilitator, and entrepreneur based in Chicago, IL. She runs LMRM “loom room,” a floor loom rental studio where she hopes to broaden accessibility to weaving equipment for fiber artists in Chicago. Wang is also a co-organizer of Chicago Textile Week 2019 and 2021, Chicago’s first exposition connecting and strengthening textile communities throughout the city. She received her BFA (2018) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a 2021 recipient of the gener8tor Art Accelerator Grant as well as a 2022 DCASE Chicago recipient of an Individual Artist Grant. She has attended the Digital Weaving Lab Residency at Praxis Fiber Workshop (Cleveland, OH); The Weaving Mill WARP Residency (Chicago, IL); and Spudnik Press Cooperative Fellowship (Chicago, IL). Her work has been exhibited nationally at McHenry County College (Crystal Lake, IL); Savannah Center Gallery for Contemporary Arts (Gary, IN); Friend of a Friend Gallery (Denver, CO); Heaven Gallery (Chicago, IL); and Elijah Wheat Showroom (New York City, NY), amongst others. Learn more about the artist’s work: www.hopewang.com

Ciel Rodriguez is a recent graduate of the Museum Studies certificate program offered at the University of Georgia. Along with being a budding museum professional, she is a letterpress printer, papermaker, bookbinder, photographer, possible poet and who knows what else. She completed her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an emphasis in analogue photography and papermaking. She received her MFA from UGA in Printmaking and Book Arts. Rodriguez was previously awarded a Wilson Center Graduate Research Grant for her thesis research in large scale papermaking and was a graduate assistant teaching for Printmaking and Book Arts at UGA. She currently  Learn more about her work: www.cielrodriguez.net