Artist Susan Lenz takes her “Wall of Keys” to England
Lenz installing Wall of Keys
Columbia artist Susan Lenz received a South Carolina Arts Commission Quarterly Project grant to help support installation of her work, The Wall of Keys, at the Festival of Quilts held Aug. 6-9 in Birmingham, England. Lenz was invited to show her work and present two lectures during the exhibition Maker, Making, Made, curated by Through Our Hands, an international invitational group of leading textile artists. The Festival of Quilts is Europe’s leading patchwork and quilt show and includes more than 25 curated exhibition areas, 300 vendors, 1,000 competition quilts and 180 workshops and lectures.
The Wall of Keys is a site-specific installation of 1,800-plus keys with handmade paper tags attached using a unique zigzag-stitched piece of cording. The tags include individual letters clipped from new and vintage magazines, sheet music and other print materials. The Wall of Keys confronts viewers with countless human desires for real and imagined locations in life, such as “The Key to Happiness,” “The Key to Fame and Fortune,” “The Key to a Fast Internet Connection,” and “The Key to Failure.”
Since returning from England, Lenz has installed The Wall of Keys at her business, The Mouse House, 2123 Park Street, Columbia. Visitors may drop by without an appointment Monday – Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Wall of Keys at The Mouse House. (click for larger image.)
Visit Lenz’s blog, Art in Stitches, to read more about her experience (Part 1) and view photos of works (Part 2) exhibited at the festival.
The Quarterly Project grant program is designed to support specific arts activities that promote an individual artist’s professional development or career advancement. Projects that promote excellence in an arts discipline and make such excellence accessible for general community-wide audiences are also encouraged. The program is funded in part by a generous award from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of The Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina. The next Quarterly Project grant application deadline is Nov. 15, 2015.
Top image: An exhibition visitor snaps a photo of The Wall of Keys. All photos courtesy of Susan Lenz.