Organized by MSVU Art Gallery
Rice Paddies / Vîet Nam is a textile work-in-progress by Frances Dorsey, who lives in Portuguese Cove and teaches part-time at NSCAD. It is being exhibited at MSVU Art Gallery as part of the “Impromptu” series, brief exhibitions of important new bodies of work, during which the artist uses the art gallery as a studio.
Like Dragon’s Teeth 1994 (MSVU Collection), the surface of Rice Paddies is inscribed with memories of bloody combat, in the form of handwriting from her late father’s World War II diaries. The work consists of multiple panels of linen, cotton and rayon pinned to the wall, measuring eleven by thirty-one feet installed. The surface design has been achieved with a variety of techniques, including fibre-reactive dyes, discharge, pigment, stitching and silver leaf.
