Sheila Hicks: COSMIC ARRIVALS

Translation by Marina Dlacic 

FRANCESCA MININI VIA MASSIMIANO 25 20134 MILAN
Inauguration Wednesday  May 19 2021 – until  July 17 2021
T +39 02 26924671 INFO@FRANCESCAMININI.IT

From a very young age Sheila Hicks begins to observe nature and the power of which it is pervaded. Thanks to the teachings of the artist and master Joself Albers and her frequent trips to South America, the artist begins to reflect on the central role of the Great Mother, to observe its shapes, colors, and to try to master its details.

Sheila Hicks understands that in order to give voice to the fascinating nature she observes daily in South America she must move away from painting and experiment with a new medium. She finds it in the heart of pre-Columbian culture: the fabric. Abandoning painting was the cause and consequence of a new approach that could only be resolved with a new medium.

Sheila Hicks, Cosmic Arrivals, installation view at Francesca Minini, May-July 2021
Courtesy the artist and Francesca Minini – Photo Andrea Rossetti

The passion for yarn requires a completely different approach and for this reason Sheila is immediately attracted to it. She appreciates its aesthetic power but also its social, cultural, political role, a value that unites all the people of the world. In fact, weaving represents a common, intimate language, devoid of the superstructures that characterize the traditional languages ​​in use. It is no coincidence that it has its roots in nature. Before becoming man-made, natural textile fibers are part of nature.

The fiber unravels and recreates itself in her hands. The fabric is therefore the backbone of a theorization born under the sign of her mentor Albers and continued through the search for a new color construction and a reuse of textile fibers, often considered functional or decorative.

Sheila Hicks, Cosmic Arrivals, installation view at Francesca Minini, May-July 2021
Courtesy the artist and Francesca Minini – Photo Andrea Rossetti

The materials are represented by the feeling they give us even just by observing them. Wool, cotton, natural or man-made fibers are what cover and protect our bodies. Our skin perceives the sensations that fabrics give us and recognizes them by moving in the space that Sheila gives life to.

Although Sheila Hicks’ art is most frequently viewed across the weaving spectrum, the theme of color is just as important. Sheila treats color as matter. Fibers and colors are the subjects of her choreography.

The correlation of elements in space creates a harmonious cosmos where each element is in that place for a reason, such as the notes in a pentagram.