A Throughline of Hope

Banner Image: Installation view of Tending Disorder at Form+Content Gallery

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The one room gallery tucked between an antique shop and a jeweler on 2nd Street in North Loop is currently enveloped in a welcoming sea of cyanotype blue. Michelle Westmark Wingard’s exhibition, aptly named Tending Disorder, pieces together failed prints, discarded ancestral fabric scraps, and captured moments of negative space, visualizing our agency in responding to experiences, transforming memory, and the hope that exists in the chaos. The collection of quilts and cyanotypes is a resting place for the weary and reminder of our shared humanity.

Our lives are a randomized carousel of fortune and misfortune. Confusion and complexity are unavoidable shared states of the human experience. Taking forms like failure, grief, trauma, the disorder of existence overwhelms and distorts our perceptions of life. In her cyanotype and quilted works, Wingard reimagines this reality through her choice of medium, use of color, and small but significant details to remind us of the power we hold in reframing our experience.

 

Image: Installation view of Michelle Westmark Wingard's cyanotypes in Tending Disorder at Form+Content Gallery. Photo by Josephine Carson.

The two opposing walls of Form+Content Gallery are filled with the distinct opulent blue. Having honed in on the medium over the past five years, Wingard’s experience in cyanotype is obvious in the variety of natural materials and phenomena she makes use of in her prints. By tracking the geographic origins and temporal contexts of materials used, she gives emphasized meaning to the produced prints and in turn to the transformed, completed artworks. 

Recording the specifics of the bodies of water used in rinsing and contexts of the objects used to block light, including frost, lace, stones, and plants, the memories attached to each print become visceral. They are not simply paper or fabric exposed to the sun, but each a unique recipe capturing an intentional moment. These reflect the moments both good and bad that make up our lives and memory of it.

While Wingard makes active decisions in the creative process, the final result is truly unpredictable. A set of six works from her ReOrdered series, Waves (fresh water/ Lake Superior) Tide (salt water/ Atlantic Ocean), exemplify the many variables and meaningful record of memory that contribute to the final product. After prepping the fabric for printing, it was cut and sewn in the darkness of night, hiding it from the light until ready to be exposed. Wingard then laid each piece on the shore of Lake Superior or the Atlantic Ocean, placing a row of stones in the middle and allowing the waves and tide to wash away the emulsion. These works are intentionally stretched on their frames last, tightening the fabric and vulnerably revealing the white seams between each shape. She uses the unpredictability of the natural world to capture the details of an imperfect moment.

 

Top Image: Installation view of the ReOrdered series, Waves (fresh water/ Lake Superior) Tide (salt water/ Atlantic Ocean). Bottom Image: Installation view of Michelle Westmark Wingard's quilted cyanotypes. Photos by Josephine Carson

Made up of “failed compositions” and “test prints”, the quilts in Wingard’s ReOrdered series exemplify tending to disorder most obviously. While the scraps of fabric they are made of are imperfect emulsions, the artist actively chooses to honor these moments of failure, or exploration, or disorder by putting them on display and reimagining them as an act of care. Though there’s chaos in the sporadic coloring of the individual prints, the intricate pattern and repetitive geometry of the quilting makes sense of the visual illusion. Amidst the transformation is the inclusion of sporadically dispersed vivid coral stitches. In stark contrast to the blue, the presence of pink deepens the composition and serves as a reminder of hope in the midst of failure and disorder. With even closer observation, the same pink can be seen radiating off the white walls behind where the quilts are hung. Whether intentional or not, Wingard adapts the individual memories to include a hint of hope through the quilt backing. She transforms the chaos of many individual moments into a collective new vision, taking ownership of the disorder of life and representing a through line of hope.

The largest piece, and possibly the pinnacle of the exhibition, hangs alone on the back wall of the gallery. Visually this quilt, River of Leaves (Remnants/ Material Memory), strays from the cyanotype color palette of the rest of the works. A literal river of fabric leaves flows down from the top corner, carrying naturally bittersweet family history in its current. This piece acts as a specific and personal example of the power Wingard has to transform familial memories through her use of inherited fabric from both her mother and grandmother, and inclusion of small cyanotyped family photographs, specifically the women. As fiber crafts were historically done by women, the quilt is a fitting medium for this work, where Wingard honors the matrilineage that came before her and created hope for those to come.

 

Image: Installation view of River of Leaves (Remnants/ Material Memory). Photo by Josephine Carson.

Finally, four floating shelves hold a collection of 6”x 9” pieces, titled Instant Gratification, which invite the viewer to engage more personally with Wingard’s work and provide an often overlooked avenue to accessible collectorship. Each piece has a hand written note of encouragement taped to its back. Phrases like “Drop the thing you’ve been carrying… even if only for a moment” and quotes from Sister Corita Kent serve as heartfelt reminders of the hope that exists in our shared humanity.

Wingard has been part of the artist owned and operated collective that is known as Form and Content Gallery since 2024. Tending Disorder is on view now until September 12th. And if you are headed to the State Fair this year, be sure to check out her piece, ReOrdered (stones/quilt top panel #3), in the Fine Arts Building!◼︎ 

 

Michelle Westmark Wingard next to ReOrdered (stones/quilt top panel #3) in the Fine Arts Building at the Minnesota State Fair. Image courtesy of the artist.