Exhibition Views of spooling, photos by Stacey Meineke
spooling
Curated by Aneesa Shami Zizzo
Includes work by Lydia Tjioe Hall, Elise Preiss and Jennifer Reifsneider
September 24–November 19, 2022
spooling is a group exhibition of new and recent works by three-person artist collective Spool. Founded in 2016 by California State University Long Beach MFA cohorts Lydia Tjioe Hall, Elise Preiss and Jennifer Reifsneider, Spool is an organized resistance to the slow unraveling brought about by time and distance. Over the past decade and across state lines, these three artists held and matured a deep collective consciousness through exchanged art journals, monthly studio visits, and collaborative works. The trio define “spooling” as a process that is integrated into their lives, a relationship sustained by their commitment to one another through a shared love for the creative process. This exhibition presents both the results and interwoven parts of this relationship for the first time by drawing on the group's rich archives and collaborative and individual works.
Included in the exhibition is Lydia Tjioe Hall’s window in the sky series, a chronology of twelve works that Hall completed monthly throughout 2019. Made from copper mesh and steel wire, these sculptures resemble man-made portals–literal windows in the sky–that have lived in backyards, camped across California, and even traveled to the Philippines. Each piece embodies a unique patina that reflects its time in situ, the story of its journey while out in the world etched onto the surface.
Also included is a new series of work by Elise Preiss centered around used boat line manipulated into varied forms. Preiss embraces the material’s identity as a rope, using paint and gold foil to accentuate the rope’s texture and frayed edges. From a whimsical, spring-like sculpture to a tightly coiled wall piece and an oversized spool of line, this series epitomizes Preiss’ insatiable curiosity for material exploration.
Jennifer Reifsneider’s Theia Series expands on this motif, transforming rubber hose into circular structures seemingly made from metal. Each sculpture is crafted into a gestural form reminiscent of loosely tied knots. Much of Reifsneider’s work is built from patterns derived from her body, mapping her “latitudes, perimeters, rotations and orbits” through different fiber techniques and media.
Rather than allow time and distance to decay their relationships, Spool harnesses a unique resilience through creative collaboration. The spooling exhibition is one example of this, reiterating the importance of being in community with one another to keep creativity alive.
Exhibition Walkthrough
Artist Talk
Spool (definition)
/spül/
Proper Noun [from backwards loops] 1: The group. (Spool ties them together.) plural None (There is only one Spool.) 2: Geographical name Creative outpost; founded in 2016; population three; Decimal coordinates 021804210509,737473 (Wherever they are, there is Spool.)
Noun 1: The meeting of the group, in person or online, for brief or extended periods. [from quarterly video CHAT to monthly studio WORKDAY, inclusive of residencies, exhibitions, workshops, meals]. (When is our next spool?)
Verb 1: To be curious : INQUIRE, INVESTIGATE, LEARN 2: to create : MAKE, TEST, FAIL, PLAY 3: To share : OPEN, REVEAL 4: To make secure : SUPPORT, ENCOURAGE, ACCOMPANY 5: To nourish : EAT, DRINK, LAUGH 6: To transform : TURN, PASS THROUGH, GROW, PLAN (spooling forward) 7: To reflect (spooling back, esp through memories, shared experiences)
Synonym: unspool
Public Programs
About the curator
Aneesa Shami Zizzo is an artist and arts-based researcher in Los Angeles using recycled materials to create fiber art. Her work references the sublime and world mythologies to evoke a sense of the collective unconscious within her imagery. Zizzo holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Fiber and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute. She was the Textile Arts | Los Angeles AIR at Helms Design Center in 2018, and was a Fellow for the Mildred’s Lane Attention Labs: Order of the Third Bird in 2015. Zizzo’s work has been exhibited nationally in galleries and museums. She recently created costumes for Planet City (2020), directed by Liam Young, which was commissioned for the NGV Triennial 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. Aneesa Zizzo is also the co-owner and director of Studio 203, an artist-run space in Los Angeles that collaborates with artists to create exhibitions and host workshops and performances.
www.aneesashami.com
About the artists
Lydia Tjioe Hall is a metal and fiber sculptor. After earning a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1998 with an emphasis on ceramic sculpture, she attended Cabrillo Community College where she explored both small and large scale metal work. Her mentor there, Dawn Nakanishi, helped lead her to pursue graduate school. In 2011, Lydia earned her MFA from CalState Long Beach where she concentrated in metal work under Susanna Speirs and fibers under Carol Shaw-Sutton. After graduating, she stayed on as a professor at CSULB teaching Beginning Metals and Fiber Sculpture. Lydia resides in Altadena, California with her family where her at-home studio is well suited for creatively attending to both her craft and her two young children. From there she continues to generate new ideas and exceed limitations in her sculptural work.
www.lydiatjioe.com
Elise Preiss has exhibited in over 30 solo and group exhibitions across the US, including the Metal Museum in Memphis, Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, as well as The Carnegie in Covington, KY. Originally from France she earned her BFA in Product Design from Otis College of Arts & Design in 2008. A summer apprenticeship in France with master blacksmith Guy Pendanx awoke her love for metal leading to her MFA with an emphasis in metal from California State University Long Beach in 2012. She has taught at various institutions and is currently adjunct faculty in the School of Art at CSULB while also offering private classes in her studio in Torrance. In 2021, with a long-time friend, Elise opened a store in the south of France dedicated to the support and promotion of local French Artisans. She now shares her time between Los Angeles and the South of France.
www.elisepreiss.com
Jennifer Reifsneider has shown her art in more than 70 exhibitions across the U.S. From 2021 to 2023, her work is featured in Made in L.A., an exhibition curated by the Center for Craft in America to inaugurate LAX Terminal 1.5. In 2021, the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, MT published her work and writing in the three-person exhibition catalog, Beyond Intention. Her work is in numerous public and private collections, including the High Desert Test Sites Archive at the Nevada Museum of Art and Franklin-Furnace Artist Book Archive at the Museum of Modern Art. After working in L.A. for eight years, she returned her studio to Missoula, Montana. In 2019, she received a Montana Arts Council Artist Innovation Award, followed by competitive CARES Act and ARPA funding in 2020 and 2022. She earned her BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1995 and MFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2011.
www.reifsneider.com