Queer Craft

with Feather Chiaverini
FIBER 629 001 | 3 credits | $175 lab fee
June 1–14, 2025

This course will consider queer aesthetics and contributions to the development of visual, literary, filmic and philosophical culture with an emphasis on craft. Queer culture is not a separate or parallel function of a larger culture, but is central to and generative for it. We will address how the inclusivity and resistance of the queer movement offers productive models for artistic production now. Demonstrations and assignments will introduce crochet, dyeing, activist performance techniques and anarchist publishing strategies to the group who will also use collaboration, exploring in nature, narrative, upscaling and play as a way to contextualize queer craft, queer activism, making kin, and queer mysticism. Readings will include Larry Mitchell + Ned Asta’s The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, 1977, Audre Lorde Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, 1978 and Jose Esteban Munoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, 2010. We will look at the work of Vaginal Davis, Sheila Pepe and Joe Brainard and we will screen Apichatpong Weerasethakul's 2004 film Tropical Malady and Jennie Livingston's 1990 film Paris is Burning among others. Assignments will encourage surprise, discovery, and world building. In addition to working on proposed personal projects, artists will work collaboratively on polymorphously perverse drawings, mycelium networks, and historical lesbian structures. The class will culminate in a runway presentation of crafted wearables.

Feather Chiaverini (he/they) explores how queer theory, horror, class, and pop culture shape our identities and how these tools can be used flexibly to shape the self. Inspired by the theater and everyday hustle of their family’s costume shop, they use costumes as material, rather than adornment. They make sculptures out of trash and trash out of sculptures, all mingling in a teeming mass, creating immersive installations, soft sculptures, and digital environments that reimagine our horizons. Feather is a fiber and performance artist from South Florida currently based in Philadelphia. They received a BFA from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia. They have shown work nationally at Trout Museum of Art, N’namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Temple Contemporary, ROY G BIV Gallery, and more. Feather is currently the Residency Director of the Queer Materials Lab and adjuncts at Tyler School of Art and Architecture.

Papermaking Studio

with Andrea Peterson
PAPER 604 001 | 3 credits | $175 lab fee
June 1–14, 2025

In this class, we will use paper pulp, an incredibly malleable material, to create works of art. Pulp can be transformed dimensionally, made into drawings and unusual surface textures and used to lock elements into a state of timelessness. It can evoke skin, metal, rock, or something totally different. We will use a wide range of fibers from all over the world to present perspectives unique to location. Chosen for their flexibility in the artmaking process, these fibers include cotton, abaca, flax, kozo (paper mulberry) for Eastern techniques, wheat straw, and sisal, an agricultural by-product sourced from a regenerative farm. All fibers used in the course are grown organically and in raw states. We will process the material using a sustainable cooking method in a cauldron over a wood fire. Utilizing Eastern and Western traditional techniques, we will push the boundaries of the medium. Students will hear stories about Ts’ai Lun, the inventor of paper; designer and historian Dard Hunter; and painter David Hockney, and their global influence on paper, fiber, and pulp. This course will emphasize a sustainable approach in the studio and how it can be addressed in one’s own practice. It is designed as an open dialogue generated by students’ ideas, resulting in a body of work inspired by the medium and the natural beauty of Ox-Bow.

Andrea Peterson (she/her) is an artist and educator based in Laporte, Indiana. She received her MFA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1994 and BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently teaches paper arts and papermaking at The School of the Art Institute in the Fiber and Material Studies Program and from her studio Hook Pottery Paper. She co-operates Hook Pottery Paper with her husband, ceramic artist Jon Hook. She creates paper art works and relief printed images on handmade paper that utilize pulp-drawing techniques. She combines these efforts to make works that address human relationship to the environment. Her work has been collected by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and can be found in many private and corporate collections such as Hollister clothing, Chicago as well as exhibitions in Beer Shiva, Israel; Deggendorf Museum, Germany; Steyermuhl Paper Museum, Austria; Scoula di Grafica, Venice, Italy; and Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana. She has conducted workshops and lectures at Paper Museum in Steyermuhl, Austria; University Georgia Athens; Cortona, Italy; Scoula di Grafica, Venice, Italy; and University of Syracuse, New York.

Hanji Unfolds: Traditional Korean Papermaking

with Su Kaiden Cho
PAPER 608 001 | 1.5 credits | $100 lab fee
August 3–9, 2025

In this hands-on workshop, students will explore the ancient Korean art of hanji, a traditional craft that transforms mulberry bark into beautiful, durable paper. For centuries, hanji has been an integral part of Korean culture, used in applications from calligraphy to interior design and fashion. Through guided instruction, students will learn the process of preparing natural fibers, forming sheets, and drying the paper. This class emphasizes both traditional techniques and modern adaptations, encouraging participants to create custom papers that reflect their personal aesthetic while connecting with the deep historical and cultural significance of hanji. Course content will consider both the historical and contemporary significance of hanji, with special emphasis on its use in art and design. We will explore the work of renowned hanji artist Lee Seung Chul, whose innovative installations and sculptures push the boundaries of this traditional material, and Yang Sang Hoon, an artist known for his intricate geometric hanji creations that blend craftsmanship with modern abstraction. A key reading will be Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking, by Aimee Lee, which offers a comprehensive look at Korean papermaking traditions. The class will also include a screening of the 2011 documentary Hanji, by Im Kwon-taek, highlighting the cultural significance of hanji in Korea. Students will create layered hanji artworks inspired by Lee Seung Chul’s installations or geometric compositions influenced by Yang Sang Hoon’s use of hanji in abstraction. For the final project, they will create a collaborative hanji sculpture for Ox-Bow.

Su Kaiden Cho (he/him) is a Korean-American artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and installation, exploring the intersections of Eastern and Western diaspora. His work is deeply rooted in phenomenology, engaging with the interplay between the visible and invisible, often through material studies and spatial explorations. Recently, his focus has shifted toward post-minimalist approaches, experimenting with monochrome and color-field compositions, with an emphasis on texture and dimensional surfaces. Cho's practice reflects his ongoing investigation into absence, presence, and the uncanny. Cho earned his MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and now serves as an educator, holding a teaching fellowship at SAIC. His artistic achievements include prestigious residencies, fellowships, and awards, such as the International Center for the Arts in Umbria, Italy, led by Michelle Grabner, and the Ox-Bow School of Art Residency in Summer 2024. Cho has exhibited in over 20 solo exhibitions and more than 40 group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. In addition to his artistic endeavors, Cho served as a first ambassador for Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists' Residency in 2024.

Soft Compositions

with Chris Edwards & Heather Mawson
FIBER 627 001 | 3 credits | $175 lab fee
August 10–23, 2025

This course celebrates handicraft and invites students into the sewing circle in service of solving compositional problems with the language of quilting. Serving students at all levels of experience, participants will learn traditional, nontraditional, machine, and hand-sewing techniques to produce soft objects including quilts, banners, windsocks, dolls, and installations. Demonstrations on mapping 2D and 3D images, piecing, applique, dyeing, and additive image making will encourage the exploration of the alternative and whimsical sensibilities in soft sculpture. Platforming the loose and improvisational mark-making possible with traditional stitch and applique techniques of quilt-making, this highly collaborative and social course will be inspired by the works of Rosie Lee Tompkins, the Gees Bend Quilters, Claes Oldenberg, RuPaul, David Byrne, and Lee Bowery. Screenings may include True Stories (1986), Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), and readings may include “Knitting, Weaving, Embroidery, and Quilting as Subversive Aesthetic Strategies: On Feminist Interventions in Art, Fashion, and Philosophy” (Michna 2020). Students will conceive and construct original fiber works in response to assignments that focus on the expressive, personal, and comical possibilities of these materials. Assignments will include completing piecing, construction, binding, and quilting of a full personal quilt project, collaborating on group textiles, even with artists in other classes, and students will make a wearable item for Ox-Bow's Friday Night Costume Party. The course will culminate in a group quilt show installed in the landscape.

Chris Edwards (he/him) makes work that focuses on practicing caring about things and being at home. He makes quilts and pottery in the pursuit of making art that depicts objects found in his space alongside pretend elements. His work reflects his interest in creating objects that become part of his environment and interact with the real objects and life they represent. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from SAIC in 2011 and his Master of Social Work from the University of Iowa in 2014. He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and works as a psychotherapist in addition to his art practice. He lives in Chicago with his husband, dog, and two cats. He has exhibited work at Ox-Bow House, Wrong Marfa, Elephant Gallery, Adds Donna, Tusk, LVL3, Oggi Gallery, Dreamboat, Western Exhibitions, and Julius Caesar in Chicago.

Heather Mawson (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator that views process, layering, collage and archiving as the foundation of her practice. She uses time-based media and everyday materials to investigate how U.S. economic and political systems shape personhood. Her current research looks at the history, techniques and semiotics of quilting within the United States to reexamine within her work the materials and images that are saturated in our day-to-day lives. Through the process of collecting, transforming and organizing images and found materials, she questions where the system ends, and the individual begins. Mawson received her BFA in Fine Arts from The University of Texas at El Paso and an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally with a focus on artist-run spaces. Mawson lives in Detroit and teaches at Wayne State University.

Bookbinding with Decorative Paper

with Sophia Rauch & Kellie Romany
PRINT 622 001 | 1.5 credits | $100 lab fee
August 24–30, 2025

In this class, students will apply the processes of cyanotype, marbling, and dyeing on paper for use in a bookbinding project of their design. Students are welcome to bring their paper (store-bought or hand-made) for use in this class, and some paper will be provided. Students will learn bookbinding techniques including pamphlet, stab, and case binding. Lectures will invite students to consider the sustainable characteristics possible in paper treatments, including strategies for foraging, natural dyeing, and re-using materials to create one-of-a-kind sheets and book projects. As a group, the class will look at the work of Sol LeWitt, Krista Franklin, Bethany Collins, and Olafur Eliasson and discuss pertinent readings and resources. Students can expect to spend the first two days of class experimenting with decorative paper treatments and then using those materials to learn three bookbinding techniques.

Sophia Rauch (she/her) is a 2D artist focused on abstraction and artistic myth. Her practice is an interdisciplinary romp through a formalist empire rooted in material experimentation. Rauch uses sculpture, drawing and printmaking to explore artistic authorship and originality. Her work celebrates the complexities of beauty with humor and curiosity. Rauch was born in Berkeley, California, in 1984, and is based in Brooklyn, New York. She has shown internationally and published her artist book Scans at Home with FLTFL. Rauch received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2008, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012.

Kellie Romany (she/her) is an abstract artist interested in bodies and systems. Using a color palette of skin tones, Romany creates objects that act as a catalyst for discussion about human connections, race, and the systems surrounding these themes. She received a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008. Romany has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including museum shows at the High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and DePaul Art Museum.

Crochet, Gifts, Friends: The Politics of Softness

with Falaks Vasa
FIBER 630 001 | 1.5 credits | $100 lab fee
August 24–30, 2025

Often, we crochet as something else happens – a class, a Netflix show, a catastrophe. Often, we crochet objects we don’t keep – a silly frog, a hundredth granny square, a scarf. Often, we crochet with friends, for friends – community, gifts, softness. In this class, we will turn our full attention to the gestures of labor and generosity that can enable a fiber art practice. We will learn the basics of crochet, practice it as individuals and in community, and create works that consider the audience and the gift of gifting carefully. Discussions and presentations will consider the work of Wells Chandler, Faith Ringgold, and Nina Katchadourian. Readings will include excerpts from Lewis Hyde's The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, Sara Ahmad's Queer Phenomenology, and we will screen the film Wool 100%. To enhance the communal nature of our discussions and learning, students will also be able to propose relevant screenings to host throughout studio work time. Assignments will invite students to unpack what gift-giving means to them while building technical skills, and the class will culminate in a critique and/or exchange of final crocheted projects.

Falaks Vasa (they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist with a set of practices that move in and out of definition, but always through their body. Their practices span video, performance, fiber art, poetry, photography, 3D animation, stand-up comedy, and more. Falaks graduated with an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University (2023), and with a BFA from SAIC (2018), and currently teaches at RISD as Lecturer and Critic. Falaks’s lived practice currently takes the roles of an artist, writer, and professor. As an artist, Falaks has attended residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and ACRE, and shown their work internationally. As a poet and author of speculative fiction, her work has been published by Sybil Press and collected by the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. As a professor, she enacts her pedagogy as creative practice, and has been awarded the Archambault Award for Teaching Excellence from Brown University. Falaks is from Kolkata, India, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her wife, a cat, and a ball python.