A Border Crossing Project
On View: March 12, 2004 – April 23, 2004
Friday, March 12, 2004 from 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
In March 2004, Highpoint will be featuring a most extraordinary exhibition—an international women’s print project called The Flying Carpet. Created to honor the everyday visions and creations of women, the Project features work by 165 artists of varying disciplines, from 24 different countries. Highpoint is proud to be the first USA venue for this show, and one of the many hosts of the exhibit as it travels around the world. Please join us for an Opening Reception for the show on Friday, March 12 from 6:30 – 9:00 PM. The Flying Carpet will be on display at Highpoint through April 30, 2004. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM and by appointment.
Flying Carpet Project is the brainchild of Swiss printmakers Barbara Bandi, Susanne Glauser, and Carla Neis. The phrase “Women United in One Work” succinctly describes their aim: to organize an art project that would intertwine the creative efforts of women printmakers worldwide. Each of the Project’s artists has created and editioned a small print (about a foot square) to form a large portfolio. The number of different cultures and printmaking disciplines represented in the Flying Carpet ensures that no one nation or technique garners too much attention; rather, the highlight of the Project is the concepts and ideas of the artists involved. Noting that women’s daily work all is too often devalued and unnoticed, the statement for the Project speaks of an urgency “to express the hidden potential of women”. With a given theme of “visions and energies from the woman’s perspective”, the Flying Carpet transcends international and cultural borders to create a voice unified in the shared experiences of women.
In addition to the political implications in the Flying Carpet’s artistic theme, the organizers maintain a strictly not-for-profit objective. One copy of the portfolio (which has an edition of 30) will be donated to a center in each country that it visits. It is the aim of the Project’s organizers that the Flying Carpet will be shown in each participant’s country.
Amy Sands, a Minneapolis-based printmaker, artist and longtime member of Highpoint’s Printshop Cooperative, is one of the Flying Carpet’s Participants: “Flying Carpet has transcended all boundaries and superceded into an open arena for women to express their thoughts and ideas. It is a wonderful opportunity to be part of this profound visionary project that will touch most areas of the world. The idea that so many artists, poets, and politicians with no direct personal ties have come together from across the world to create art on the very premise of our visions is incredible. It demonstrates that we all remain interconnected in our journeys as females, and in most cases, artists. This has been a great opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other.”
Poet Karla Smart collaborated with artist Amy Sands—she had this to say about the project: “Collaborative work holds the promise of conversation with another artist/writer. Creative choices one makes twine with those of the other. Clarity in process and surprise in meaning emerges. The full collection of prints/writings in the Flying Carpet exhibit is yet another layer of ‘collaboration.’”
To view all 165 works of art, visit the website at www.flyingcarpet.ch