Split: Threads of Fracture and Connection

We all experience moments of fracture, division, and separation. These “splits,” whether they’re physical, emotional or societal, profoundly shape our perspective. In this fiber arts exhibition, Susan Allred uses the traditional crafting of quilting to create sculptural forms that explore the nature of splits and the ways they can confront, challenge and transform us.

In the past, quilting was a social activity, gathering the women in a household—or often a neighborhood—together to do handwork while they chatted and rested from other family duties. Allred believes that her modern version of this craft celebrates this historical power of social connection and the resilience of the human spirit. With quiet contemplation of our moments of division, we can learn to navigate these experiences with greater empathy and wisdom.

Sometimes Allred's forms are softer versions of real-world objects that help her process difficult issues, as when she was thinking of women's physical safety and bodily autonomy while making the suit of armor from "How Does Your Armor Grow?" The farm implement in "Unequally Yoked" recalls a religious term representing marriage and how a couple is expected to work together and in tandem. The brass knuckles and cell phone tower in "Goon Squad" represent the role deadly weapons and social media played in our leaders' reactions to a series of incidents of teenaged-gang violence in the town Allred lived in for over a decade.

Other works recall clay vessels, which for Allred, stand in for the human body, and most of her curvy pitcher-like shapes refer to women's bodies. Some are artistic portraits of specific people, like the two pitchers that were once a single form, but were split apart after they had been damaged in a previous exhibition. Other pitchers represent personal events, like the two shapes that have long fissures that are held together with needle lace, and the pitcher splayed apart from the pain of a chronic physical ailment.

The textile sculptures in this exhibition were chosen from Allred's body of work since 2019. These pieces are more than just artistic expressions, they are acts of resistance, healing and testimony created using a blend of traditional quilting techniques, mixed media, and modern adaptations of textile arts.

Photos by Summer Raine Young