A semi-permanent rainbow woven with polychromatic fibers is hovering near the ceiling of the Shaw Center for the Arts’ fifth floor.
The LSU Museum of Art’s colorful new exhibit, Gabriel Dawe’s “Cascade of Color,” debuted this past week. The exhibit features “Plexus No. 15,” a 16-foot-tall, site-specific installation of common sewing thread woven into a towering double helix of varying colors.
“If you were to freeze a ray of light, I think it might look something like [‘Plexus No. 15’]” Dawe said.
Dawe said he spent nearly 70 hours installing the artistic creation, which gave new purpose to 37 miles of sewing thread. The Mexico City-born artist said he built the piece by lacing thread through precisely measured metal hooks, which were carefully attached to the walls of the exhibit space.
Dawe said he used a long metal pole to act as a needle to thread the taller hooks he couldn’t reach. He said the installation process was tiring, as he had to keep his arms lifted above his head for hours as he hoisted the pole to lace the thread back and forth among hooks.
“It’s hard work,” Dawe said. “I think of it as a long-distance race, and I try to keep a steady pace.”
Renee Payton, marketing director for the LSU Museum Of Art, said Dawe’s art has drawn a considerable amount of attention, even though the exhibit is in its infancy.
“We’ve had people coming to see it all weekend, even before it was completed,” Payton said. “It has already made quite a splash.”
The Cascade of Color exhibit will be housed in the LSU MOA for roughly a year before it is replaced by another temporary art collection, Payton said.
Although Dawe’s artwork will be removed in the future, similar works to “Plexus No. 15” will live on in exhibits across the country, including spaces in Dallas, Austin, Houston, St. Louis, Long Beach and Brussels.
While Dawe’s unique art techniques have garnered country-wide success and international interest, Dawe said his future in textiles was not always certain, especially during adolescence.
“Exploring textiles was a girl’s thing growing up,” Dawe said of maturing in a gender-biased Mexico.
Dawe experimented with thread and cloth as a young adult and began the construction process for his first chromatic web of thread in late 2009. He said he encountered a learning curve when developing his first prototype.
“The first one I did was flat, but by the fourth I had added volume and geometric shape,” Dawe said.
As for the future, Dawe said he will continue installing similar works to his LSU MOA exhibit and branch out to other artistic mediums.
“My next project is working on a French-Canadian music video,” Dawe said.
 
____
Contact Josh Naquin at [email protected]