Lace and Textile – Tina Cassara

Lace and Textile – Tina Cassara

 

Except from Leather and Lace by Frank Green from the Cleveland Free Time August, 1999

A noteworthy exhibition in Tremont this month is a show at Brandt Gallery of recent work by Christina (Tina) Cassara, a conceptually minded fiber artist and professor at Cleveland Institute of Art who rarely exhibits locally.  She uses Battenberg lace that is hand-made in China and stitched together with images made with computerized embroidery machines. Images of hands predominate, together with texts from songs called “lace tells,” which were chanted by girls and young women to alleviate the tedium of labor-intensive work in the 17th to 19th century English lace-making shops.

A series called Immigration consists of embroidered images of China, Sicily and the Dominical Republic, three nations known for their lace work, each country surrounded by lace that radiates out like ocean currents.  This, together with the images of hands and the words form the songs are a tribute to a stream of tradition, to the makes of lace past and present around the world.  Like a knot in the lace itself, Cassara feels tied to this tradition, carried through centuries and across oceans by thousands of women arriving literally in a computerized America.  

 

 

 

 

Tina Cassara

Recent World – Lace and Textiles

August 13 – September 7, 1999