Come see student fiber artists at work on the Exquisite Gorge project!

A collaborative artwork involving artists and communities throughout the Columbia River Gorge, which will be unveiled to the public at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, on August 6.

This semester, students in Studio Art/Art History and Environmental Studies have been working with artist Amanda Triplett to collect climate data from the Columbia Gorge and then interpret and visualize that data to show the impact of climate change within a fiber art installation. The Lewis & Clark community is now welcome to visit the studio where they are working, to learn about the project and different fiber techniques and to see the creative process in action. The studio space is Fields 206 and is open Mondays/Wednesdays, 11:30-2:30.

Amanda Triplett, Serenity Swarm, 2017, fiber on wood panel.For the initial phase of the project, Triplett and the students used pre-collected data sets from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other sources, and data collected from the river itself. They are now translating specific data sets into individual fiber art pieces to be included in a larger fiber sculpture that depicts a section of the Columbia River Gorge. Specifically, the surface layer of the river and surrounding areas were mapped out and are now being stitched into a horizontal tapestry suspended within a 4’ x 4’ x 6’ frame. Underneath the surface of this main textile tapestry, different types of climate data relating to the river are being depicted as distinct fiber arts sculptural forms. When the entire work is completed, it will then be included as one of a total of ten sections comprising the entire Columbia River Gorge and exhibited at Maryhill at the end of the summer.