Installation
For a period of six years, varying lengths of spaghetti-thin plastic tubing were my lifeline to vital oxygen. As I moved around my home, my 50-foot tubing would kink itself into twists and knots and get caught on furniture, forcing me to drop what I’m doing and straighten it.
Lifeline, 2018. Site-specific installation. Rotary knitting machine, arm knitting. Acrylic yarn. 132” x 120” x 60”
Lifeline, alternative view
Rotary knitting machine
Lifeline, alternative view
Hyperbolic Space. Of Euclidean, hyperbolic, and elliptical geometries, which one is the true geometry of space? Crocheted hyperbolic forms represent celestial bodies floating in that infinite universe.
Hyperbolic Space, 2019. Crochet. Acrylic yarn. 108” x 72” x 36”
Hyperbolic Space, alternate view
Hyperbolic: Orange,
Hyperbolic Space, detail
For my exhibition, The Structure of Cloth 1.1, in addition to using the scanning electron microscope to magnify commercial knt fabric, I created that same structure with arm-knitting to scale it up to 182 times the actual size found in cloth.
Knit 182X, 2017. Arm knit. Wool roving. 168” x 40” x 4”
Knit 182X, detail
Installation view, The Structure of Cloth 1.1, 2017
Colony is a collaboration between Jessica Cadkin and Ruth Tabancay that was prompted by Colony Collapse Disorder, the abnormal disappearance of worker bees from a hive.
Colony, 2018. Hive, by Ruth Tabancay: Embroidered. Fabric, thread, foam, beeswax. Bees, by Jessica Cadkin: Hand stitched. Deconstructed artificial flowers, thread. 168” x 120” x 72”
Colony, detail
Colony, detail
Hexagons set edge to edge tile into an infinite, 2-dimensional plane. If a pentagon is inserted, a convex shape is formed. A soccer ball takes advantage of this property. When a heptagon (7-sided shape) is inserted, a 3-dimensional concave shape is formed. The seven pieces that make up Hive are made of hexagons stitched together except for a few pentagons and one heptagon. Beeswax imparts translucency to the silk.
Hive, 2015. Machine stitched. Silk, bees wax. 72” x 96” x 12” The pieces on top row far right, and bottom row far left are made exclusively of hexagons
Hive, detail. An orange-brown septagon is near the center.
Hive, alternate view
Hive, detail. An amber pentagon is near the center.
installation view, Geometricity 2.0, 2015
For Twice the Size of Texas, I examined the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a, slowly, clockwise-swirling area of plastic 'confetti' in the North Pacific Gyre. Rather than discrete, recognizable throwaways, plastic garbage has been broken down by mechanical forces and photo-degradation into tiny, suspended pieces. Using consumer plastic bags, I re-created a stylized depiction of this mass of debris that has been estimated to be twice the size of Texas.
Twice the Size of Texas, 2011. Plastic film, tape. 120” x 228”
Twice the Size of Texas, alternate view