Vadis Turner
“I delight in the moment when the textiles start to misbehave and take on a new identity.“
Interview by: Issey Scott
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? Where did you study?
I was born in Nashville, TN and received my BFA and MFA from Boston University. Studying Painting brainwashed me into seeing everything as a painting…. which has some pros and cons. After graduation, there were so many voices in my head that I wanted to take a break from the medium. But I was terrified to quit working. I moved home for a brief period, before getting a job in NYC, and my mother’s house became an art supply store. I excavated her kitchen and bathroom, collecting materials that women traditionally used to idealize themselves or their spaces with. The world of mixed media opened from there. I became fascinated with the transformative possibilities of domestic materials.
I moved to New York and taught at Pratt Institute. My practice deepened as did my interest in gendered materials. Eventually I wanted to make paintings again and re-direct my formerly 3D mixed media palette. My first textile painting came from imagining what would happen if I lit a wedding cake on fire and threw it against the wall. I made a series that partnered different destructive agents, like mold and fire, with ribbons, nightgowns and lingerie. My first show of this work was a bust, but the process was undeniably stimulating for me. I have stayed the course with the work, engaging with new materials and relationships to the wall and the floor. For the past five years, I have been resurrecting damaged quilts and used bedsheets into abstract paintings, sculpture and wall reliefs.
I moved back to Nashville five years ago with my family and work in a secluded studio outside of town. I am represented by Geary in NYC and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville.
You describe your work as utilizing "feminist materials"; how does something qualify as this?
I carefully select materials that embody traditional expectations, places and roles for women. My process manipulates and contradicts the material’s original function and association. I delight in the moment when the textiles start to misbehave and take on a new identity.
Most of my supplies come from the domestic sphere. All of them, to me, are inherent to the work and lives of women. I have used everything from wax paper, to curlers to hosiery. In recent years, I have gravitated towards used textiles, specifically bedding, that are storied and charged by years of use. I buy damaged or “cutter” quilts on eBay that seem otherwise doomed. Handling these pieces connects me to the hands and time of different generations of women. I have also mixed ovulation waters (tears & sweat) as well as breastmilk with resin to create textile vessels.
What do you hope to contribute to the feminist art canon?
During this time of COVID-19, I think we all are humbled and grateful to simply have work to do. I hope to make art that is honest, confident and unclassifiable, exploring spaces between feminine and macho.
What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?
The JMW Turner exhibit at the Frist Art Museum blew me away. I loved loosing track of what is sea and what is sky after the horizon line dissolves into the storm. A furied landscape gets me every time.
I could only see it online, but Joan Witek’s show at Minus Space is very powerful. Dense grid-based works that have agitated compartments. Very macho.
Two Undressed Stones..., 2019
Cumulus Megaliths, 2019
Megaliths at UCCS Gallery, 2019
Red Window, 2020
Misguided Portal, 2019
Black & White Portals, 2018
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?
My studio is a 40 minute drive outside of Nashville in a home my grandparents built. I enjoy the trip each way as it gives me time to transition. It’s beautiful there. I have lots of windows and a large work table that is a converted pool table my grandfather used to play on. I take a walk with my dog along the lake before sitting at my desk each monring. Ideally, I open my sketchbook (instead of my laptop) to review the notes and drawings from the day before to see what carries over. Bad drawings and terrible ideas are an important part of my process. It’s where the editing begins. I may read a bit before I get up to sweep the floor. The studio is often a mess when I leave as I stay to the last minute before I have to get home. I pick up the pieces and start to tending to works in process. Usually what I was doing at the end of the previous day doesn’t seem as revelatory as when I left it. I move things around and create new relationships. Eventually I find an entry point and immerse into it the work. I listen to loud music while I experiment and problem solve. The tedious handwork calls for audiobooks. As I approach a deadline or the end of a series, I work in complete silence all day which is the best part of the push.
Which women sculptors are you inspired by?
For my current body of work, I am interested in the visual structure and expressive possibilities of grids. Both Eva Hess and Jackie Windsor have worked within and around grid systems. Their works are equally spare and complex. Their work helps me to edit without mercy, to say as much as possible with a few essential elements. It took some time, but I am finally realizing that a simple idea, an abstracted shape or a singular color is enough.
Beverly Semmes’ ceramic vessels are visceral and wobbly in wonderful ways….I love an unsettled shape. I also love how her textile work starts on the wall and spills onto the floor.
Ana Mendieta is a great source of inspiration too.
I look at a lot of male artists too, mostly painters. I hope to emulate the bravado in Julian Schnabel, Robert Rauschenberg, Sterling Ruby, and Adolf Gottlieb’s work.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
My next show is in September at Geary NYC. I have been looking at moths and Brutalist architecture in preparation for my next show. Not sure now how it will manifest but I am interested in the contrast between austere and vulnerable, weight and flight, grids and splayed forms, structures and disturbances. I have been making bedsheet wall reliefs that are juxtaposed with architectural elements like window blinds and roofing. I have a summer residency scheduled at the Hambidge Center for the Arts in Georgia. It’s funny that during this time of sudden social distancing to hope that my scheduled period of social distancing doesn’t get canceled.
All images are courtesy of the artist
Date of publication: 29/04/20
