Lewis Knauss

GALLERY

ARTIST STATEMENT

The significance of place in our lives is central to my work. The textures, materials and processes of textiles allow me to explore ideas about landscape, identity and belonging. Most of my work refers to places important to my life: Macungie, PA; Upstate New York; Colorado; New Mexico, Cape Cod and Philadelphia—where I now live. 



During the past decade, the mountains of Colorado, as well as the desert and woodlands of America’s Southwest, have become central to my work. From my earliest visits, I realized that situating oneself within the vast landscapes of the West required time and close attention; I could not walk unaware of my surroundings. Schooling myself to notice changes mindfully from day to day enabled me to position myself within the landscape and appreciate its silences. 

Recent experiences along the variable and often foggy coastline of Cape Cod have increased my sensitivity to the importance of place. What it means to locate and identify oneself within a natural landscape is perceived here through the qualities of light and color seen in the ocean’s seemingly endless horizons, dramatically affected by seasonal change and time of day. The study of this horizontal vista, perpetually in flux, also increases our awareness of time’s passage and the value of a fugitive moment.

The time I spend attentive to landscape translates into process and the labor of making. Images are created thread-by-thread, line-by-line, so that my work can be viewed as landscaped textures that are naturally created, blade-by-blade, leaf-by-leaf. A meticulous process of construction marks my life and my presence as maker. The repetitive act of knotting becomes a physical meditation, perhaps releasing prayers into the environment. The silence of process echoes those silences I appreciate in nature, and allow the work to occur. 

Landscape serves as witness to the passage of time and the cycle of life, its disturbing beauty often the result of natural or manmade events—drought, fire, flood. I want my work to convey a sense of the complexity of landscape and our physical relationship to it, illuminated at a particular time of day and particular time of year in a particular place. Rather than offering a generic impression, I create intricate moments on a micro scale. I hope to reward the viewer’s close scrutiny with a more intimate awareness of landscape, a reminder that time passes quickly and we should not rush through our lives unaware of its cycles of destruction and renewal.