REVIEW
Iris Eichenberg’s Material Landscape (in English and Spanish)
In Iris Eichenberg’s mid-career survey, the selection of works by curator Davira S. Taragin, and the exhibition design by John Randolph make us feel that we are less alone.
Iris Eichenberg: Where Words Fail, at San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design, shows 40 of Eichenberg’s works presented with a logic that is neither chronological nor formal. Objects, jewelry, and installations compose different landscapes as if they made up a person’s geography—the material landscape of the first half of the artist’s life. The selection of materials is the result of a poetic search rather than a demonstration of virtuosity. It's impossible to speak about Eichenberg’s work, and especially about the oeuvre in this exhibition, without referring once and again to materiality. When words fail, Eichenberg resorts to materials. By knitting, embroidering, repeating an obsessive gesture upon a surface, she creates her own devotional act.
Iris Eichenberg: Where Words Fail was made possible, in part, by the Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant, which the artist won in 2021.
Caption: Exhibition view, Iris Eichenberg: Where Words Fail, Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, photo: Henrik Kam
