I was recently introduced to the summer activities of artist Ricki Dwyer, including their time as weaving faculty for the Black Mountain School, printmaking faculty for The Oxbow School, a residency at Front/Space in Kansas City, and the tour for their embroidery project Tim Kerr Made Me Do It.
Ricki Dwyer grew up in the Bay Area, has lived in various regions, graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in Fiber Arts. And has now been living in Chinatown for three years working as a teacher, bar tender and artist. Ricki is finishing the tour of their embroidery project Tim Kerr Made Me Do It with a San Francisco performance at Artist Television Access this Friday night 9/23 -with music and video by Shea Cote and Ian Vanek.
I met with Ricki to talk about their recently project and summer experience. See the interview and photos below.
SFACC: How did you have the idea for your embroidery project Tim Kerr Made Me Do It?How did hearing Tim Kerr speak encourage you to begin this project?Ricki Dwyer: Tim Kerr came to speak [at Black Mountain School] and we all sat on these funny rocking chairs on a giant open deck at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He hung out to answer questions on existing as an artist, and had the best rant about the need for visual artists to go on the tour. Maybe I was punch-drunk on Black Mountain School at this point, or it was the romantic setting, but it made the most sense. This project came directly from that night. A few other things stuck out as well, mostly he just held such a sense of extreme satisfaction. He presented with such certainty and freedom.
SFACC: What were some of your highlights this summer during your tour for the project? Any particular places you enjoyed, awesome people you met, interesting tattoos you embroidered?
RD: I got a lot of people talking about their relationships which was funny, people really wanted to hash up the significance of their tattoos. Which I was all for, it was great having the process replicate getting that tattoo the first time, in a dark way. People were always very thrown off when I had my sewing machine in a bar, I got a couple of requests to fix clothes and bags, which was funny in a different way.
I think my favorite tattoo so far was the word BATSKANK on someone's thigh, but mostly because of how crazy excited they were to share it.
SFACC: Your work with textiles includes ways to communicate and engage with other people directly. Do you think of ways to directly incorporate interactions with people, or is that more of a natural result that you don't always think about before?
RD: Well yea I think most of my projects come from wanting to talk about something, and producing objects as a result.
Bill Daniels's Bozo Texino embroidered tattoo.
SFACC: Since you are there with people when you are embroidering their tattoos is it a sort of performance to you? Or not in the ways of a performance art piece, but more in the sense of how musicians perform?
RD: It gives me an excuse to be on a private date in the middle of the crowd. It's performative sure, but it's a stage for two. I think it's worked best so far in proximity to a larger show.
SFACC: Tattoos are personal and intimate, especially when you are getting the tattoo - did it also feel that way when you were doing the embroidery and learning about the tattoo?
RD: Yea absolutely, I got some good gossip out of this project. And a couple invitations to festivals.
Photos from the tour via Ricki.
SFACC: Its interesting, the idea that people are "giving you" their tattoo, to make into a patch and then someone else will wear it on their person. What are your thoughts about the sharing, wearing, translation of the tattoo into another medium, part of your project?
RD: The real dream is to walk down the street and see your ex's, roommate's, brother's, back piece on some stranger's jacket. I think the conversation those folks would have is part of this project too.
Screen printed tour event flyer for ATA event.
SFACC: What will you do for your part of Three Freaks at ATA this Friday? How will you end your tour for this project?RD: I'm really excited about the show at ATA, I'll be doing one last pop-up with my sewing machine. Two incredible people, Shea Cote and Ian Vanek, are going to be performing music and video as well. I'll have all the patches I made this summer up, arranged by city, and people can take them based on location.
Since I've gotten back I've also been creating garments full of a single person's tattoos, which I love. They've turned out great. It should be a good night.
Ricki Dwyer, wearing a vest with embroidered tattoos in front of their Chinatown apartment.
SFACC: What are you planning next in terms of projects, travel, etc? RD: I get to spend November in Joshua Tree weaving at Andrea Zittel's space. That should be a really magical time.
Big thanks to Ricki for talking to us and sharing their work. See Three Freaks at Artist Television Access on Valencia in San Francisco on Friday 9/23 - 8pm, $7 at the door.
To keep up with Ricki Dwyer and their work follow them on Instagram @rickipickle.
