Lisa Anne Auerbach
Snowflake
Lisa Anne Auerbach served as the Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist in the fall of 2017. In Snowflake, one of two projects she created during her residency with Island Press, Auerbach translated a traditional Hønsestrik knitting pattern into a large-scale relief print made from over one thousand individual tiles. In her second project, Ten Truths Self Evident, Auerbach created a series of ten woodblock prints. Each print is made up of four-word phrases (in response to MAGA) on fabric which are then strung together as a group in the form of bunting.
Excerpt from curator Meredith Malone’s PROOF essay about this project:
“In Snowflake, one of two projects created with Island Press, Auerbach translates a traditional knitting pattern into a large-scale print representing two snowflakes, one in full and one cut off on the upper left side of the paper. Each tile making up the pattern was inked and placed individually, resulting in less-than-perfect alignment from one tile to the next. This meticulous, additive process mirrors that of knitting itself, working stich by stich to arrive at a completed garment. With its slightly irregular lines, the printed pattern reads as supple rather than rigid or stable, further alluding to the properties of knitted attire. The use of the snowflake appears at first to be a benign motif, typical of many a cozy winter sweater, but for Auerbach the image also speaks to the tenor of our current political climate. As someone who grew up in the 1970s, she would often employ the term snowflake as a positive descriptor meant to highlight the unique characteristics inherent in all of us. In the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. elections, however, the word’s meaning became twisted by the political right, with snowflake being used as a disparaging term for a person who is seen as overly sensitive and fragile. The snowflakes depicted in this print are gray, even dirty looking when compared to the bright color palette employed across the rest of the pattern. However, Auerbach’s use of various shades of gray in these snowflakes acts as a symbolic counterpart for a more nuanced position of contemplation and possible dialogue versus extreme polarization.”
Download the PROOF brochure with the full essay to the left.
