Julie Nocent-Vigil
Glimmer, Tallgrass Impressions Joomchi Series

Media: Hanji, etching ink, hanji thread
Size: 3.75’ x 14.8’ x .25"
$5000

Artist Statement:
Series and repetitive markmaking with stitch and print are deeply connected to the act of marking hallowed space in my practice. I recall and create a “map” using the physical process of joomchi, engaging a plane of hanji in lengthy cyclical series of directional folding and hydration. The process is a haptic meditation on moving through space as the plane of paper is repeatedly turned around and manipulated. Historically used for clothing and homemaking to paper for sutras, the Korean joomchi fiber process truly invites reflection on the act of transmuting the mundane through attention and the hand. My textile artifacts attempt to map memory, impression, loss, orientation and disorientation, giving expression to an experience of physical place and an interior field, that speaks in this time of isolation, angst, and virtual connection.

In both meridian titled pieces, the surface has been punctuated with hundreds of stitched crosses, and in this act of marking place and search for center, the opportunity for light to perforate the darkened plane is created. Light functions in these pieces meaningfully. The erosion of the material recalls absence and memory, and during this period of isolation with the angst of unknowing and uncertainty, the dark fields both suggest gravitas while conveying light. Resonating with the theme of this exhibition, this work from my Tallgrass series considers passage and navigation through darkness, summoning intuition for direction, message and connection in the experience of a vast big empty - material and immaterial. These works also referencing historical travel west along the plains opening up at the 100th Meridian ... where literally feeling for the leaves of the compass plant, prairie wayfarers were afforded orientation north.

In Glimmer, I consider the experience of twilight, and an ambivalent mood with the approaching darkness. Created after tracing paths moving westward towards New Mexico, this work speaks of the experience of a narrative repeated again in these great open heartland spaces … where an attachment to materiality in the form of materialism threatens the very openness and freedom frequently sought … the embedded buffalo coin prints allude to the persist lure of Quivira and a life out of balance with the natural environment … and also now, in our isolation during the pandemic, the profound reflection that we engage in as we hope for healing of the many fault lines gaping wide open now in this nation.

Biography

Julie Nocent-Vigil came to the Southwest to attend graduate school at the University of New Mexico after undergraduate work at the University of Toronto, and concentrated her studies on Native built environments, mapping, and narratives about place as well as ceramic research examining the role of non-traditional contexts in transmission of pottery knowledge. During this period, she met her husband when he was working in the cultural preservation department for his tribal community. She resides with her husband in Santa Fe where they both now engage in creative work.

Over the last six years, Julie has been seriously embracing visual art studies, drawing upon her graduate design and fine art studies, and seeking new opportunities to focus upon artmaking while trying to balance full-time work as an public educator. She has been awarded residencies with the Tallgrass National Preserve and the Jentel Foundation. A return to studies of Western spaces has been deeply renewed and enriched by studying the fiber art of joomchi under the guidance of artist, Jiyoung Chung. What had led her from Toronto, with an undergraduate degree in philosophy and religious studies to research at the University of New Mexico, unfolds now in a new way … tracing old paths and new threads … along the Santa Fe Trail … returning.

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