CAMERON ANNE MASON | ALCHEMY
Mercury, textile, 29.75 x 10.5 x 5 inches
Foster/White presents Alchemy, a collection of new works by Seattle artist Cameron Anne Mason. Continuing her explorations of gravity ice-dyeing on textile, Mason sets dyes, fabric, and ice at play with one another, to generate new and unexpected results. Her process in studio allows for striking transformations that mirror the larger forces observed in the natural world.
Forest for the Trees, textile, 40 x 30 inches framed
Alchemists of old worked at the intersection of science and magic. Through a contemporary lens their quest to turn lead into gold or to find the secret of eternal life seems ridiculous, yet they were the chemists of their time. Anything seems possible until it is disproven.
This show reflects a deepening of my studio process. Using only dye, ice, gravity, and time, I observe the range of marks on fabric revealed by manipulating each of those elements. Each fabric panel uses a single dye color that splits into its component parts when acted upon by ice. Subtle manipulations of the white fabrics and the passage of time allow the color to seep across the surface, telling a unique story in color and texture. A dye color simply named “Blue Gray” splits into a multitude of shades from orange to purple to blue and myriad hues of gray in unrepeatable variations. This combination of control and letting go, science and magic, creates imagery that evokes the textures and vistas of the natural world.
Regardless of the process, my work always reflects on our place as citizens of the Earth. When we remove these fabrics from the confines of the studio and look at them closely, their abstraction resolves into meaning and connection. We find our Pacific Northwest coastlines, an eroding rock wall, a moment when the night’s storm lifts and the wind carries the clouds away. These images exist in the borderlands between dream and reality. My artistic intent is to connect the viewer with the beauty of the world in which we live and to encourage stewardship of our precious and threatened environment. — Cameron Anne Mason
Copper, textile, 27 x 10.75 x 4.5 inches
Mason holds a degree in Visual Communication from the Art Institute of Seattle and studied Liberal Arts at the University of Washington. Her artwork has shown across the country and at galleries around the Northwest, as well as Whatcom Museum of Art, Bellingham, WA; Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, WA; and Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA. Her work was included in a group exhibition at Miniartextile in Como Italy, and the Rio Patchwork Design Show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.