Carolyn Halliday, 2020 Spun Gold Award Winner
One of Carolyn Halliday’s early works is a collection of tall, wire-knit trees, and it is an example of what speaks to her today: family, nature, and science. “I named that work My Father’s Religion,” Carolyn says, “it’s an homage to my father. On the focal tree I knit wire into a poem about walking in the forest with him.”
Now, a new generation inspires Carolyn. “I am really influenced by conversations I have with my son and daughter-in-law, who are both ecologists,” she says, “I create things based on what I hear. It’s rife with metaphor. My son says he’s just trying to be scientifically accurate, but all I hear is poetry.”
Carolyn adds: “What I’m currently making is a whole bunch more cytoskeletons – an expansion of my Mary Giles exhibition piece – that will be part of a bigger work about cryptic species, which started from conversations with my daughter-in-law. Basically, it is a metaphor of how we view the world: to always understand how unique each person’s experience is.”
“I’m thinking of this time as an artist residency,” Carolyn says, “time to just block everything out and focus on my work.”
Carolyn Halliday was a founding member and chair of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council.
