Exhibition Call — Huggernaut: Fiber Arts of Love

Request for Qualifications

Entry deadline: November 17, 2019, at midnight (MST)

On display from January 13 – March 31, 2020, at the Civic Center Public Gallery, located at Scottsdale Civic Center Library, 3839 N. Drinkwater Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ 85251.

Huggernaut: Fiber Arts of Love is an exhibition of small art quilts and other fiber arts addressing the warmth and comfort of love.

Fiber arts have been traditionally created as a functional quilts and rugs, decorative crocheted doilies, or weavings and tapestries. Today, fiber arts may pack a powerful message with more meaning than grandmother’s quilts. Artists work with a wide variety of materials, including wool, felt, cotton, silk, or man-made fibers. Woven linens and other materials are printed, dyed, stained, ripped, sculpted, and sewn. This exhibition will explore the warmth and comfort of love.

What is love? It’s an age-old question for poets and us all. Be good to me. Give me comfort. A mother’s embrace—can it be felt with art? Can a hand-made quilt wrapped around you summon the love from the one who made it? Is that unconditional love?

According to the Urban Dictionary, Huggernaut is defined as a “force/object/person that embraces everything and everybody in its path out of sheer love.” It names “the great Buddha” as an example of a huggernaut.

These days, to love one another is a radical act—a transgressive act. If it is now socially acceptable to draw lines, to act out in fear and hatred of others, let art be the radical act of love to bring us back to one another.

For this exhibition we are asking fiber artists to create a work of art that communicates love in the face of so much heartache, pain, and fear—art that requires a faith in humanity, though sometimes it seems impossible.

Download PDF with complete listing of opportunities and application details.