imagination space
Hunter College
New York, NY
November 28, 2012 - 2013
sponsored by the FDA
with assistance from...
Bernadette McCauley
Debbie Sonu
James Regan
and "Sandy"
I discovered my medium as an artist early in life. As a child, I crawled under the quilting frame of my grandmother’s sewing circle. With my back to the cool basement floor, I watched as the sewing needles poked through the tightly stretched fabric. A bright light above the quilt illuminated the salvaged remnants of shirts and clothing that were transformed into brightly colored geometric patterns that bedazzled my eyes. Sitting around the perimeter, the husbands occasionally rose to readjust the clamps holding the quilt to the frame, testing the tension, aware of the surface. My everyday perception of my grandparent’s dark dreary basement was transformed by fabric and light into an aesthetic experience.
John Toth
As an intermedia artist I have a long history of using stretched fabric and electronics to create my own mysterious places in museums, galleries, theaters, concert halls and schools.
The basement light at my grandparents home was replaced by videos, slides and data projectors to illuminate my installations with images of nature and abstract patterns of light.
The collaboration of the women in the quilting bee has influenced me to seek out other collaborations with poets (Michael Basinski), choreographers (Ruby Shang, Holly Fairbank, Doug Varone), composers (John Cage, LeJaren Hiller, James Emery, Don Metz), directors (Eric Nightengale, Terry Doran, Shelley Want), actors (Jean Taylor, Alan Nebelthaul), filmmakers (Joan Grossman) and artists (Tom Aprile, Laura Young, Andy Toposki)
Faculty Delegate Assembly
John Toth copyright 2012-13