Jeanne Bieri, The Dance, n.d.
November 22, 2024
Jeanne Bieri’s art seems planted at the intersection of familial, personal histories, the natural (and sometimes entropic) world, and keen design sensibilities. Born in 1949 in Hastings, Bieri attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo before moving to Detroit in 1972. Her exploration of artmaking led to her enrollment in Wayne State’s MFA program, from which she graduated in 1994. Though trained as a painter, Bieri’s practice transformed as she embraced sewing; her recent fiber works reflect themes of memory, reclamation, and reconstruction. They are handstitched from her late father’s midcentury army blankets layered with vintage quilts and fabrics sourced from her family’s matriarchs, as Bieri “[seeks] to connect their stories by mending them into a new whole.”[1] For Bieri, each stitch is intentional; the process of modification and regeneration is meditative, peaceful, and healing.[2]
The present work, titled The Dance, exemplifies this mindfulness in both technical mastery and formal composition. Each suture between patches or appliqués is precise, yet the decorative needlework—the deep blue and champagne lines that circulate—suggests a remarkable dynamism (indeed, it dances) and relationship between form and significance. For instance, these stitch lines circuitously direct the viewer’s gaze from one far edge to a collection of silver lamé fronds, over the green and brown background patches and back out to another edge, in turn revealing their own flower- and leaf-like silhouettes. The resulting impression of fluidity and the depicted organic motifs contrast curiously with the original contexts of some of these fabrics—that is, military violence. At the same time, the army blanket represents the comfort and survival that is possible amidst warfare. The form of The Dance as a whole resembles a cloak, suggesting this protective quality as well as potential intimacy with the lineages of its constituent elements. Bieri hopes that “in restructuring and mending these blankets, by defining the surface with the chain stitch, the horrors of war that exist today can be kept at bay,”[3] perhaps (re)turning toward the natural world for guidance. As the ecology of the natural world and also Bieri’s chain stitching shows, everything is connected.
Bieri’s work has been shown throughout the Midwest, and her successes have been punctuated by several awards, including several gold metals from the Scarab Club’s annual exhibitions, the Michigan Council for the Arts Grant (2000), and the prestigious Kresge Fellowship (2017).[4] She has taught at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Wayne State University, and Henry Ford Community College, and remains a fixture of the Metro Detroit arts and craft scene.
Written by Sarah Teppen