Embedded Energy by Ellen Kochansky

(Above: Signage, clothes lines, and bale of debris from Ellen Kochansky's Embedded Energy at 701 Center for Contemporary Arts, Columbia, SC. Click on any image to enlarge.)

As if I needed more visual "eye-candy" last Thursday after touring the YLI facility in Rock Hill, I attended several art opening later in the evening. Along with writer Cindi Boiter, I went to Frame of Minds on Main Street to see a small show and some stunning eye glass frames. We went on to City Art to see the work of Tarqi Mix and to the preview party for Laura Spong and Leo Twiggs work at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios.

Finally, we ended up at 701 Center for Contemporary Art, 701 Whaley Street. My husband Steve met us there. It was fantastic. Ellen Kochansky's exhibition is the result of several months in residency in this building....the former cultural and entertainment center of the Olympia Mill village. Of course, the textile mill is closed but Ellen managed to make contact with families that had once lived, worked, and cherished the place. She packaged all the emotions and lingering memories between sheer fabrics with bookbinders glue. She hung deteriorating bridal gowns, clothes lines, and vintage sheets of hand written text. She baled debris from the neighborhood. She filled the gallery with the ghosts of an almost forgotten era.


(Above: View to a hanging, deteriorating bridal gown along with one of the textile panels and bale of "energy" at Ellen Kochansky's Embedded Energy installation. Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: The signage seen between two textile panels. Click on any image to enlarge.)

(Above: Reception for Ellen Kochansky's Embedded Energy at 701 Center for Contemporary Arts in Columbia, South Carolina. The image shows several sheer, textile panels in which artist-in-resident Ellen Kochansky placed natural elements between sheer material or placed inked footprints on the material.)

(Above: Other art lovers looking at Ellen's textile panels. Click on images to enlarge.)

(Above: Placed in significant locations throughout the installation were pedestals for wire containers. Each grouping was a rich, natural wonder of materials. Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: Detail of the natural materials Ellen selected for one of the pedestal arrangements.)

(Above: This textile panel was cut to show the otherwise invisible footprints that crossed over the natural materials. Click on image to enlarge.)

(Above: The cut footprints allowed those in attendance to see through the fabric....aware others and the mystery from the cut void. Click on image to enlarge.)

These are some of my photos from the reception and exhibition. I've been told....by a very, very well informed source (aka ELLEN!)....to return during the day. The light from the large windows will completely transform the work. I'm eager to return.


(Above: Click on image to enlarge. This is one of Ellen's "suggestions" of the people who passed through the mill and the mill village....a footprint. Some of the footprints were simply treads of a shoe. Some, like the one above, were created from handwritten text.)

(Above: Two of the many panels of textiles in Embedded Energy by Ellen Kochansky. One is of footprints. The other includes various natural remnants between the silks of sheer material....a suggestion of the embedded memories and energies from the former site and its people.)

(Above: Detail of one of Ellen Kochansky's panels'. Embedded Energy...embedded natural artifacts seen between layers of sheer fabric.)

(Above: Detail of one of Ellen Kochansky's panels in Embedded Energy.)