"Alchemy of Tea" combines a group of national artists who use tea as their medium and muse. Jen Crickenberger curated this unique collection in September 2014 for the Cornelius Arts Center. The exhibit was scheduled to travel as an evolving curated collection in 2015.
Alchemy of Tea brings together a
g r o u p o f n a t i o n a l a r t i s t s
inspired by tea. This unique and
stunning collection of work
provokes viewers to ponder the
transformation of tea from its
consumable and degradable form
into art. Tea has been a part of
sacred rituals across the globe for
centuries. The fragility and golden
hues found in this collection project
the historical and spiritual roots of
tea, while each artist’s subjects
juxtapose a contemporary take on
tea as a medium and muse. In
this setting, tea takes on many
forms alluding to themes of
introspection, domesticity,
memory and mortality.
Featured artists include
Barbara Bartlett, Bridget Conn,
Elizabeth Alexander, Jennifer
Coyne-Qudeen, Mari Omori
and Rodney Thompson.
~ Jen Crickenberger, Curator
Barbara Bartlett
Although I have been a lover of tea since
childhood, it was only about three years
ago that tea bags began to show up in my
artwork. Since then, I have immersed myself
in the world of the overlooked discarded
tea bag – the beauty of the stained paper,
the subtle colors of the spent tea leaves, the
bright variety of tea tag designs and even
the simple charm of stained tea strings. I
love the aspect of recycling and reuse that
comes into play in this work. Although the
process of drying and dissembling the bags
can be labor intensive, there is also a satisfying
and meditative quality to repurposing
the materials. As an artist, experimentation is
almost always central to my working process.
Bridget Conn
This body of work deals with my evolving
themes of ritual, tradition and inheritance, as
they blend with nature and science. I find
equal wonder in the traditional “women’s
work” activities of baking and cooking as I
do in studying geography, astronomy and
biology. These images are created to express
the wonder I see in the everyday; the
lurking sense of order and sacredness that
imbues even the most mundane of objects. I
strive to crossbreed the spiritual and the analytical,
rather than separate them into two
distinct languages. Printing images onto teabags
satisfies my personal conceptual concerns
of working with a material that holds
significance to me – the ritual of morning tea
that I have observed since I was a child.
Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander makes sculptures,
drawings and installations out of intricately
cut paper and found objects. Alexander’s
work deconstructs and then reconstructs
chosen objects, images, or spaces through
acts of concealment and disclosure so that
they become versions of themselves that
are different, unearthed from beneath the
surface and highly exaggerated. Patterns
are laboriously removed, divided, repurposed
or applied to utilitarian objects and
extravagant images giving them uncanny
emotional character. Vulnerability, loss,
escapism and longing are among what
stem the moment where these manipulated
items are neither materializing nor
disappearing, but caught between both
actions.
Jennifer Coyne–Qudeen
Memories are often associated with tastes,
scents and sounds. Tea is my memory link.
One whiff of freshly brewed black pekoe
with mint and orange transports me back
to my grandmother’s kitchen. Lady Grey
winds me to Newburgh, Scotland where I
first sampled its delicate yet steady taste.
My work with tea bags explores and
expands on the concept of memories,
whether real or imagined, through the use
of marks – the tea’s own as well as my
hand made marks, direct rust prints, digital
prints and hand and machine stitching. The
translucent quality of the tea bag paper
seems to be the perfect medium for
expressing and storing memories and as
with time, they become ethereal.
Mari Omori
My interest surrounding tea is the timeshared,
mutual respect between host and
guest, and memories of the moment as an
event. I am interested in how these
moments are prepared; how each person
comes together to connect with one
another. I have begun recording these
events that have taken place at my home,
at restaurants, artist studios, or at airportswherever
and whenever I have been a
witness to tea-centered events. Although I
am from Japan, I have lived in America
long enough that my identity and my
notion of home have been obscured.
Since 'home' is something of an imaginary
place for me, it has become a significant
force in my work as I explore its shape with
manipulation of materials.
Rodney Thompson
I often utilize common objects of everyday
life, things overlooked, disregarded and
unappreciated, and present them out of
context such that the viewer sees them
first for their beauty and later for what they
are. In this way I hope to suggest how
there is much to be seen and appreciated
in our world that is often missed. Beauty is
all around us, available to the observant
eye. Encaustic allows me to include these
objects and materials in my artwork in
ways that add layers of meaning to the
art, referencing both the joy of simple
activities of daily living as well as more
specific concepts that I associate with the
objects and materials.
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