Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Collaborating with Anila Rubiku

On Friday I went to an artists lecture at the ASU Art Museum. International visiting artist Anila Rubiku talked about her past and current work. Anila will be an artist in residence at the museum through November 17. Originally from Albania, she currently lives and works in Milan. She is "often assisted by members from local communities and constructs large-scale sewn structures that explore urban architectural spaces and the depiction of the human body. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Asia and in the US [...] Her work is currently included in the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Venice, Italy[...]"
She does a lot of sewing on paper to make really beautiful drawings. I was interested in working with her on the project because of both her use of materials (I'm a sucker for embroidery) and also because of how she spoke about her life experiences in her lecture. I feel like I can gain a lot from the experience and from her as an artist.
After her lecture she talked with individuals who were interested in collaborating with her (which I was!) Today we met up at the museum and began the collaborative project that she is doing while she is here in Arizona. We are working on small scraps of leather, embroidering drawings inspired by the desert landscape, urban growth and human procreation. The scraps will eventually be stitched together to create one large wall piece. It was fun to sit with her for 4 hours today and just stitch away and chat. I plan on continuing to work with her on the project until she leaves next month. You can see more of Anila's work here.

These photos were taken today while we were working on the project.

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