17th-Century Embroidery Meets Hand-Carved Wooden Vessels by Aspen Golann — Graphics Design

In the second half of the 17th century, when early American colonists were well into producing their own furniture, makers drew upon the motifs and techniques common in England. Chests and cabinets were chunky, and chairs and tables often incorporated spool-like legs. In Boston, a particular interpretation of the high-backed Windsor chair emerged, inspiring furniture-maker and artist Aspen Golann to create uniquely sculptural, contemporary iterations as a nod to this heritage.

“Meeting Bench,” made in collaboration with chairmaker Peter Galbert, and “Union Settee” pay tribute to the unique early style while also celebrating furniture’s role in how we convene. Golann has long been interested in the relationships between form and function, in addition to the connections between people and the objects they use, which she also continues to explore through a series of imaginitive brushes and brooms.

a large bench that looks like two smaller benches conjoined in the center — “Meeting Bench”

Golann’s interest in early American furniture led to another centuries-old craft tradition: embroidery. Her research into early needlework, an activity pursued almost exclusively by women, inspired an ongoing series of wooden vessels she began making as part of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vacheron Constantin Artisan Residency. The program runs for 18 months and emphasizes the preservation and reinterpretation of traditional craft techniques. Golann was also joined by ceramicist Ibrahim Said and jeweler Joy Harvey.

Utilitarian at their most essential, vessels are also often displayed for strictly decorative purposes, and the artist has been increasingly interested in nudging the boundary between functionality and aesthetic appeal. Pieces like “Pouring Vessel” interpret needlework motifs onto solid wood using a strapworking technique. Even the pancaked “Strap-Carved Vessel” is hollow, so it doesn’t forego its fundamental condition. Its whimsical flatness draws our attention instead to its ornate design, which is the point.

Historically, the sewn compositions made by young girls haven’t gotten a lot of attention, at least not within the context of major art institutions. “[The embroidery] is under-researched and under-displayed, and it’s fragile, rare, and stowable,” Golann says. “I wanted to make some version of this thing that couldn’t be put away.”

Completed during residency, “Crewel Cabinet” stands five feet, four inches tall—about the average height of an American woman. The artist composed the cabinet with 37 staves, or thin strips of wood that connect edge-to-edge to create a rounded form, and each stave is meticulously built from 14 colored layers. From these layers, Golann has carved plants, rabbits, dogs, and more, where the changing colors evoke the vibrant threads within colonial-era crewel embroidery.

artist Aspen Golann walks by a large wooden cabinet that resembles a giant vessel, with crewel-inspired wood carving on the exterior featuring plants and animals — “Crewel Cabinet”

“These embroideries were often dowry objects, made within restrictive expectations for women’s lives,” Golann says. She adds:

Their compositions and themes could be quite consistent, but they are also material evidence of the girls’ internal lives and creative expression. They’re full of sensitivity, affection, and interest in the natural world, but they’re also bizarre, strange, and imaginative. I’ve been trying to tune my sensitivity to the frequency of their imaginations and lived experience, then splash that over a much larger, more expressive canvas.

Golann’s next project will be for the U.S. Treasury, which commissions a piece of furniture for its collection every 50 years. “I’m using different tones of precious metals, applied in a paint-by-numbers way, to create an abstracted, bizarre landscape inspired by early American embroidery,” the artist says. The work will incorporate reflective surfaces so that viewers will see themselves mirrored in the scene. She’s also currently working toward a solo exhibition, slated to open next November, at the Fuller Craft Museum.

“Crewel Cabinet” will be on view as part of the group exhibition Pattern Recognition: Superhouse at Five, opening November 6 and continuing through December 19 at Superhouse in New York City. See more on Golann’s Instagram.

a pair of interlocked wooden spindle-backed chairs — “Union Settee”

a detail of two handmade spindle-back chairs that are connected by their supports and arms — Detail of “Union Settee”

a wooden jug with a large handle and intricate hand-carved designs around the outside — “Pouring Vessel”

a detail of a wooden jug's intricate hand-carved designs around the outside — Detail of “Pouring Vessel”

a hand-carved wooden vessel with an assymetrical, tiny neck — Side view of “Strap Carved Vessel”

a large wooden cabinet that resembles a giant vessel, with crewel-inspired wood carving on the exterior featuring plants and animals — Detail of “Crewel Cabinet”

a detail of a large wooden cabinet that resembles a giant vessel, with crewel-inspired wood carving on the exterior featuring plants and animals — Detail of “Crewel Cabinet”

a hand holds a sculptural broom that looks like two conjoined straw brooms in one — “Couple Broom”

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