FEATURED ARTIST OF THE MONTH
SEPTEMBER 2021
RUTH TABANCAY
RUTH TABANCAY
Adapting to New Substrates, 2021
Hand embroidery on various plastics
2” x 20” x 18”
RUTH TABANCAY
What’s In You and On You: Normal Flora and Pathogens 1.2, 2019
Hand embroidery. Fabric, embroidery floss, glass Petri dishes.
1” x 28” x 20
Artist Statement
The content of my work derives from concepts and constructs from my past: childhood experiences, formal education, and an innate fascination with math and science. With techniques such as hand stitching, embroidery, knitting, rotary knitting machine, arm knitting, crochet, wet felting, cast and burnt sugar, as well as technological tools like the scanning electron microscope and computerized Jacquard loom, I express these ideas visually. My materials are as varied as thread, yarn, wool, sugar, tea bags, metallized Tyvek, silk, beeswax, plastic bags, and vintage linens.
My largest body of work is based on microscopy and magnification. Years spent looking through a microscope for my education and early career have inspired me to create the microscopic world into a tangible, non-magnified one. Embroidered bacteria, the use of the scanning electron microscope on commercial fabrics for Jacquard weaving and photographic images, and felted bacteria and blood cells are the most recent subjects of my work.
A second body of work refers to geometric forms, both Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries. I recall as a child being captivated by the pattern of hexagon tiles on my grandmother's bathroom floor. With seemingly limitless variations in color and arrangement, I create floor-level installations made of cast sugar hexagons and suspended pieces of stitched hexagons made of silk coated with beeswax. Non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometric forms are represented with crochet to form hyperbolic planes and pseudospheres.
BIO
Ruth Tabancay's passion for science led her to study microbiology in college. Following a stint as a hospital laboratory technologist, she went on to medical school. After 11 years in private practice, she left medicine to study art. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley; University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco; and California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, including the The Textile Museum, Washington, D. C.; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; World Financial Center, New York City; California College of the Arts; and San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. She lives in Berkeley, California.
RUTH TABANCAY
Normal Flora Colon, 2019
Fabric, embroidery floss, glass Petri dish
1” x 5” x 5”
RUTH TABANCAY
What Linens Know, Chicken Bones, 2012
Hand embroidery. Vintage linens, embroidery floss.
RUTH TABANCAY
What Linens Know, Gravy, 2012
Hand embroidery. Vintage linens, embroidery floss.
RUTH TABANCAY
Sparkle 322X, 2017
Jacquard. Cotton yarn.
20” x 26” x 0.5”
RUTH TABANCAY
Supplemental 322X, 2017
Handwoven Jacquard. Cotton yarn.
19” x 25” x 1/2”
RUTH TABANCAY
Sparkle Twill 386X, 2017
Handwoven Jacquard. Cotton yarn.
19” x 23” x 1/2”
RUTH TABANCAY
Knit 322X, 2017
Handwoven Jacquard. Cotton Yarn.
21” x 24” x 0.5”
RUTH TABANCAY
Serratia Over San Francisco, 2013
Wet felted. Wool roving.
96” x 96” x 2”