PaperCity Magazine

Round Top March 2021

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An ambitious public art program comes to Round Top — here's your first look at our cover story: internationally exhibited artist Rachel Hayes and her site-specific projects planned for The Compound, The Farm at Wellville, and The Halles, during this month's Round Top Spring Antiques Show. Catherine D. Anspon reports. D iaphanous, translucent textiles reminiscent of Christo and futuristic quilting, from artist Rachel Hayes' first Texas commission, "Slant of Light," will billow in the bucolic countryside via three sites: The Compound, a key Antiques Show venue, which serves as lead underwriter for this initiative; The Farm at Wellville, a new luxury wellness retreat in the works; and The Halles, Round Top Publishers' reborn event space (formerly The Boneyard). Piper Faust Public Art curates, inaugurating Faust's vision of bringing public ar t to rural Texas towns. "Rachel Hayes' whimsical and colorful interjections into the landscape, both natural or architectural, are the perfect fit to kick off a public art presence in Round Top," says Faust. "By launching an active contemporary public art program, lead partner The Compound joined by The Farm at Wellville and The Halles, add a vital cultural layer to the existing activities in Round Top." Hayes' background boasts a Midwest upbringing where she earned her BFA in fiber arts at the Kansas City Art Institute, followed by a MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Now based in Tulsa in Oklahoma's heartland, Hayes has crafted a unique artistic practice that straddles interventions in the landscape à la Christo and Jeanne-Claude, conceptually juxtaposed with notions of women's work — aka the domestic, historic art of quilting, but with a very contemporary, riotous, rainbow take on it all. Hayes' craft-centric handmade work also speaks to the antique textiles that are sold at booths and in the fields at the Round Top Antiques Show. The COUNTRYSIDE WITH A SIDE OF ... ART! artist is utilizing unique fabrics for her Round Top projects, sourcing heirloom lace-encrusted handkerchiefs and vintage table linens, to infuse into her installations, thus alluding to Round Top's half-century tradition of antiquing. There's also a global fashion component to this sculptor's CV. Italian fashion house Missoni tapped Hayes for a series of projects in 2017-2018, beginning with a runway installation during Milan Fashion Week, following by an installation/exhibition at its flagship Manhattan store on Madison ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE ARTIST AND LOWELL RYAN PROJECTS, LOS ANGELES; ARTIST PORTRAIT BY ERIC SALL. Curator Piper Faust proposed Rachel Hayes for Round Top due to her work, which speaks to land art as well as Americana traditions of quilting. Rachel Hayes' site-specific installation in Wessington Springs, South Dakota, 2017 Rachel Hayes in her Tulsa studio, 2021 110

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