A Backwards Glance Over Traveled Roads

In 2022 I published the book Chamomile-Sunflower Friendship which is composed of 78 photos, primarily of temporary art installations of two painted and hand-stitched silk rounds (symbolizing the national flowers of the Ukraine-Sunflower and Russia-Chamomile) with many quotes on friendship.

My curiosity asked: What does the book look like with all pages visible at once. So, I dismantled two of the early proofs and sewed them on a 16”  (40 cm) wide 30’ (9 meters and 15 cm) long gray fabric in a zick-zack  mode to allow this fiber book to be easily folded.

A new idea began: to abstract the pages by painting simplified versions of each double-page on the back in a mirror image form.  

Here are examples from the beginning and end of the textile book.

Then some of the shapes called for repetition and are no longer mirror-images but abstracts in their own right. The former back is now the front, displaying 38 abstracts painted with acrylics.

Walt Whitmans line “A Backwards Glance Over Traveled Roads” expresses this revision of a book on friendship and the creation of a new piece of mixed media paper-fiber art.

It is traveling in the Art Cloth Network (ACN) juried exhibition ReVision. From the introduction:

“ReVision” is an opportunity to embrace creative transformation, inviting artists to alter their approach, materials, or narrative in pursuit of something new. What does it mean to see anew? To rewind, reset, and reimagine? Art Cloth Network members were challenged to explore the transformative power of revision—finding inspiration in the act of looking again, rethinking possibilities, and evolving their work. Through this process, they have created art cloth that embodies fresh perspectives and celebrates the beauty of creative transformation.

Being such a long  piece “A Backwards Glance Over Traveled Roads” can be displayed in a variety of ways depending the gallery space and the curator who decides about the final layout. The front side is the painted one, the backside is the paper one. Ideally, both should be visible to the viewer to understand this “reVision of a book”.

Here are some options:

Depending on the height of the gallery, these pages could be displayed from the ceiling to the floor.

The total length of the entire work is 30 feet. If the gallery has this height, the pages could also be slightly twisted to make both sides visible. 

“Few pages” dimensions 40” x 16” x 21”

Probably, the most common display is the 3D version for which 4 white coat hangers are included.

In the Bloomingdale Park District Museum (Illinois, USA) it was displayed like this.