Silver Mylar

Artist / Maker Priscilla Kepner Sage (American, b. 1936)

Date1969

MediumSilver Mylar fabric, fiber, and metal

Dimensions94 x 18 x 18 in. (238.8 x 45.7 x 45.7 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of the artist and Charles Sage. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU2012.362

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextMylar (1969) silver Mylar fabric, fiber, silver aluminum discs, machine- and hand-stitched, 44" L x 28" W After a decade of using natural materials, my delight in the discovery of shiny fabrics seemed almost indecent. They suggested light dancing on water or the ice of northern lakes. In Mylar, light plays on the shiny silver surface and a column of silver metallic threads shower through the core of the circular form to touch the floor. The power of the sculpture lies in that shower in the center. The work had finally flown off the wall and, with the help of an armature, I was able to engineer a sculpture suspended from one point. In Mylar, many separate parts combine to create one form. It was difficult to turn the intricate shapes cleanly, so the parts are wrapped. Silver metal washers hang in the piece, making gentle music as they touch. This is a critical sculpture from this time, leading to more suspended works of art later on. Our children, Andrew and Abigail, were small during the early 1970s and the magic of their play, imaginative stories, puppet shows and drawings richly fed my work. A number of suspended creatures emerged from my studio. The three eight-feet tall dancing crocodiles holding hands, with their tails flowing across the floor was, perhaps, my most enthusiastic effort to entertain the children. When I did artist-in-the-schools residencies for the Iowa Arts Council in the 1970s and 1980s, the crocodiles accompanied me. By the middle of the 1970s, I was playing with ideas for a series of Flight sculptures. I like to work in a series because there are so many variations as I learn the process and clarify what I’m doing and where I’m trying to get. The Flight series had its basis in the natural forms found in my flower garden. The geometric organization of the petals of a single poppy, a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis or alighting on a stamen, the cascading of wisteria, and the unfurling of an iris blossom all were indirect influences on this work. For the final Flight sculptures, I would construct full-size paper models, suspend them with masking tape, then trim and refine until the relationships of the forms were balanced. The fabric parts were cut from the paper patterns, machine-stitched, stuffed with polyester fiberfill, and stitched back together like a puzzle to create the whole form. Patterns for the interior spaces would also be drawn and cut from the paper. This labor-intensive construction technique allowed open spaces for the webs of stitching. The final sculptures were often large, four-feet long by three-feet wide by three-feet deep.

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