Artist Statement
Nadine Flagel’s mission is making art out of "making do." She creates textile artworks almost entirely from hand-me-downs and finds at thrift stores. Although reusing fabric is technically challenging, it makes for an ethical, sustainable endeavour. Moreover, the resulting works pose strategic interventions in a mainstream culture preoccupied with consumption and fast fashion.The juxtapositions of texture, colour, and form that are so fascinating to Flagel are only possible with reclaimed fabric. The work gives off a primal, comforting warmth. Playful experiment, techniques, and media come together in pliant, durable beauty.
Fibre art such as rug hooking and quilting is not only sensual art, but also art worthy of intellectual critial and political labour. Within a larger milieu of contemporary fibre and textile art, Flagel aligns her work with a group of experimental rug hookers who are challenging traditional conceptions of the form and claiming respect for the artistry of rug hooking.
At their core level of technique and materials, rug hooking and quilting are labour-intensive acts pulling together elements that were not originally designed to be side by side into new juxtapositions of texture, colour, and form, generating new meanings. There is a revelation in the act of looping and folding fabric; as in origami, folding creates meaning and shape. Rug hooking requires a significant act of reloving the forgotten, of finding the potential of the discarded. For Flagel, the painstaking process of rug hooking is a continual re-enactment of diversity and community.
Fibre art such as rug hooking and quilting is not only sensual art, but also art worthy of intellectual critial and political labour. Within a larger milieu of contemporary fibre and textile art, Flagel aligns her work with a group of experimental rug hookers who are challenging traditional conceptions of the form and claiming respect for the artistry of rug hooking.
At their core level of technique and materials, rug hooking and quilting are labour-intensive acts pulling together elements that were not originally designed to be side by side into new juxtapositions of texture, colour, and form, generating new meanings. There is a revelation in the act of looping and folding fabric; as in origami, folding creates meaning and shape. Rug hooking requires a significant act of reloving the forgotten, of finding the potential of the discarded. For Flagel, the painstaking process of rug hooking is a continual re-enactment of diversity and community.