Antique quilting squares with name of women, died canvas and painting sewn into an 1,100 square foot quilt suspended from the ceiling.
Marking Time interpreted the universal theme of longing for a child, and ritual marking of time and material. Erika Knerr counters personal states of emptiness, desire and longing with anticipation, excitement and an awareness of vast possibility.
For this exhibit the artist sews individual paintings together with antique quilting squares from a friendship quilt made in 1920’s Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Adapting an Amish bars pattern, she joins the elements to create a 750 square foot cloth structure. The “quilt” is suspended from the ceiling, creating a womb like environment. The four corners of the quilt are mounted to the ceiling using pulleys, allowing the natural weight and life of the quilt to take on the form of a bellied stomach. The giant structure takes on a dynamic quality as the artist continually reshapes it using the tension of the pulleys. Depending on the time of day or quality of natural light the quilt may hover close to the ceiling while at other times it is lowered causing the viewer to crouch while crossing the empty gallery space.
As Joshua Selman mentions in his review of Marking Time for New York Arts Magazine, “In Marking Time the role of Motherhood is re-examined Erika Knerr speaks to the enormous split experienced between the role of producer, the role of Mother and her longing to sew them back into one and the same.” While the exhibition is beautiful and strong, a sense of urgency lingers as her own desires and pressures are positioned secondary to the mother-line.
