The Journal

Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Lifestyle

The Art Department's Friday Lecture Series hosted fiber sculptor Anne Coddington Rast Sept. 14. Rast spoke to art students and faculty about her use of fibers like linen, yarn and hair as sculpting materials.

"One thing I like about working with fibers is their innate qualities of familiarity," Rast said. "We all interact with them on a daily basis - we're wearing clothes, sitting in chairs. You have an experience with them. You know how they feel."

In addition to familiar materials, Rast also uses familiar techniques, many of which are common to basketry and weaving. Her sculptures are knitted, twined and knotted.

Junior studio art and advertising major Sarah Thiele said she sees Rast as a pioneer in the area of fiber arts.

"As a hobby, I work with fibers myself, and to know that there are people pushing for that to be accepted as a medium like bronze or marble is really cool," Thiele said.

During her lecture, Rast explained the difficulties fibers face as a medium. In the hierarchy of sculpting materials, bronze, marble and wood all trump yarn as more legitimate media, Rast said.

Rast was in St. Louis for the opening of her exhibit, "merging," at the Center of Creative Arts in University City, Mo. The exhibit runs through Oct. 28 and features pieces such as "44 Blackbirds" - 44 birds sculpted from twisted linen - and "Absence," a knotted net containing a hole the shape of a human silhouette.

The artwork reflects Rast's interest in the human body and the way it stores memories. Sometimes the interest is subtly worked into her art; other times, it is prominently displayed.

During the lecture, Rast showed photos of her life-size sculptures of a human heart and lungs. She also recounted a visit she made to a prosthetic eye company to find the right eye to incorporate into a teapot sculptor. She said she found inspiration from her husband's nursing textbooks.

"When he was studying to be a nurse, I'd be like, 'Oh! Let me help you,' and I'd look through all of the pictures and the inner-workings. The body is such an "amazing organism," Rast said.

Adjunct art faculty member Laura Beard-Aeling helped to bring Rast to the speaker series. Beard-Aeling said she met Rast at Colorado State University, where they were both art students in the '80s. When Beard-Aeling found out Rast's exhibit was opening in University City, she jumped at the chance to have her fellow alumni address the art department.

Rast is an associate professor at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. She graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in fibers from Colorado State in 1986 and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993.

The department of art and the Speaker's Committee sponsor the Friday Artist Lecture Series, which brings in different genres of artists from across the country every week. This Friday, Sept. 21, contemporary artist Heather Bennett will be addressing students and faculty at noon in Sverdrup Room 123.

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