3rd European textile and Fibre Art Festival - Catalogue

CAROL WESTFALL
USA / ASV
Born 1938
208-17 West Shearwater Court
Jersey City, New Jersey 07305, USA
Education
1972 MFA – Maryland Institute,
College of Art, Baltimore,
Maryland, USA
Selected exhibitions
2006 From Lausanne to Beijing –
4 th International Fibre art
Biennial, China
2005 New Jersey Annual –
Jersey City Museum, New
Jersey, USA
Miniartextile Como and
Sardinia, Italy
New Collected Works,
Racine Art Museum,
Wisconsin, USA
2002 One Woman: Ben Shahn
Galleries, William Paterson,
USA
University, Wayne, New
Jersey, USA
”Technology as Catalyst”,
Textile Museum,
Washington, D.C., USA
Awards
2001 Northeast Print Award, Ben
Shahn Galleries, William
Paterson University Wayne,
New Jersey, USA
Works in collections
Racine Museum of Art, Wisconsin, USA
Zimmerli Museum, New Jersey, USA
Rockefeller University, New York, New
York, USA
Angers Museum, France
I live on a man-made island directly behind Ellis
Island on the tip of New York Harbor. For
several years, I have been investigating those
groups of peoples from many lands who
came to America with a dream of bettering
their future and that of their children. Many
times, these groups would bring treasured
family textiles which were light and portable
and very much served as a remembrance of
the home left behind.
Thus far, I have completed a series of images in
many different textile techniques on mostly
European immigrants – the Italians, the
Germans, the Irish. Now I work on the Arabs
and the Jews.
This work, ”Shoah”, commemorates the holocaust.
Sometimes known as “the people of
the Book”, the Jews came to America from
many different lands. I have completed a
large series of blank faced books in silk, in
wool and in paper yarns. The ”Shoah”
weaving completes the series of works on
this group.
Each of the groups are represented by a generic
family photograph which I print digitally in
large format. At Ellis Island I found a turn of
the century photo of a group of eight
Jewish children – survivors of a pogrom
somewhere in Eastern Europe – arriving at
Ellis Island.
The Irish are represented by a large family
grouping as are the Italians. The Germans
are a farm couple standing proudly in front
of their farm house and is somewhat reminiscent
of a Grant Woods image.
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