{Natural History} Landscape memory in natural dye

Celebrate the natural beauty of the Saratoga landscape with botanical prints of local and invasive plants on large-scale printed textiles created by textile artist, Maeve Kane.

August 1 – 31

Gallery Hours

Wednesdays 10am – 1pm, 5pm - 9pm
Thursdays 5pm – 9pm
Fridays 10am – 1pm
Saturdays 10am - 2pm

Saturday, August 2 - Opening Reception & Artist Talk Join us on Saturday, August 2 from 4pm – 7pm for an opening reception and artist talk Maeve Kane. Summer flowers, beautiful fabrics, light refreshments and helping to preserve our communal knowledge of plants used for natural dyeing.

About the exhibit
Goldenrod, aster, purple loosestrife and invasive reeds blanket Saratoga County, shaping current human interaction with the landscape and shaped by Saratoga’s pivotal role in the American Revolution.

This installation of large scale, yet still intimate pieces invites the viewer to experience the Saratoga landscape at close range through touch and smell as well as sight. Immersion in the fabric print situates the viewer in their own connection to nature, and intertwines education about invasive plants in our region, the importance of native plants to sustaining local ecosystems, and community building through connection to nature through art and domestic practices such as gardening, clothing creation, and family care.

Community Collaboration
The large panels on display were created with the help of community members during two community collab sessions in the Studio led by Maeve. Working at such a large scale provided an opportunity for Maeve to deepen the connection with viewers of the work by inviting community members to participate in the design and dyeing process. Over 30 people came out to help!

More About Maeve Kane & Saratoga County
Maeve is a historian of gender in early New York by profession and a natural dyer in her art practice; this project marries those two paths. Her practice of natural dyeing grew out of an interest in the historic techniques necessary to make museum-quality historic reproductions of printed fabrics, and the gendered labor practices that were historically used to produce them. Prior to 1850, all fabrics were naturally dyed and part of a global exchange of goods.
What is now Saratoga County was deeply enmeshed in this global fabric trade at the time of the pivotal events of the American Revolution that took place here and vastly reshaped the face of our region.
Women’s household clothing production and family care in the Saratoga area connected families to a wider global world, while at the same time bringing invasive plants to our area that have reshaped what a “natural” landscape looks like.
Our modern lives no longer revolve around household clothing production, but are still deeply enmeshed in global trade systems for clothing and the embodied experience of our local landscape. Maeve's hopes the tapestries convey the intersection of the long history of our region, domestic household production in the past and present, and the seasonal, embodied experience of nature in our modern moment.

www.maevekane.net/arts-portfolio @backyard_botanicaldye

Special thanks to Saratoga Arts Community Arts Regrant Program
This program is made possible by Saratoga Arts through the Community Arts Regrant Program, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.