Shtetl Lace Lecture and Workshop in concurrence with
When Souls Stick
Work by Jess Bass and Gabriel Chalfin-Piney
September 1 - October 1, 2023
This discussion and hands-on workshop will explore the history and crafting processes of Shpanyer Arbet, a metal-plated bobbin lace technique, and the only lace specific to the Ashkenazi-Jewish community. None of Shpanyer Arbet’s history is known with absolute certainty and present-day makers keep the skill under wraps. Together, we'll think about how knowledge is passed down through generations, through forced migration, and through both isolation and assimilation. We'll ask questions like "how do crafts reflect the cultures they derive from?" Our discussion will be followed by a workshop wherein we create small pouches by braiding, twisting, and wrapping wire, rope, fabric scraps, and other fibers.
Lily Homer (b. Chicago) is a multimedia artist exploring issues of disillusionment, contradiction, Jewish diaspora, and absurdity. She uses fibrous, pliable materials like thread, steel wire, rope, and fabric to embroider, weld, crochet, collage, and produce lace, generating objects that oscillate between representational and experiential, between line and form. Homer’s ongoing research into Shpanyer Arbet, a centuries-old, esoteric lace technique with contested origins, has further influenced this line of exploration. She brings her family history of craftsmanship – textile, jewelry, and furniture manufacturing – into her work, manifesting her fears, anxieties, and hopes. Homer has a BA in architecture from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and an MFA in Fiber & Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Special thanks to the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring our September exhibition & related programming.