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Thinking Outside the Box

By Linda Wallace

      In March, 2004, I was part of a small, international conference entitled, “The 13th Annual Boundaries in Question Conference: Feminists Face the Future: New Perspectives on Biotechnology and Biology”. I found the conference, which was sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley, by “thinking outside the box”. While searching the Internet, I typed in “bioethics biotechnology reproduction” and a sight popped up that seemed interesting. It turned out to be a call for abstracts for papers to be presented at the Berkeley conference.

      I contacted the organizer, Dale Carrico, and told him who I was, what I did and that, although I wasn't interested in presenting a paper, would he be interested in exhibiting artwork relevant to the topic as part of the conference? He was open to the concept and asked me to send him slides of my work, my CV and artist statements. I really never expected to be accepted and was bowled over when Dale, not only accepted my work, arranging for a secure gallery space close to the conference rooms, but also requested that I give an artist's talk as part of the conference itself. Both “Conundrum” and my newest tapestry, “ONE”, the two tapestries I felt best fit into the parameters of the conference, were exhibited.

      People presenting papers at the conference were from wide-ranging locations across the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland and Australia. I was the only artist who presented work. It gave me the opportunity to speak to a highly intelligent group of people about my ideas and why I saw “art” as a useful medium for expressing what I thought about a subject (female infertility and bioethics in a first world context). I even used the opportunity to explain exactly what tapestry was, how it was created and how I saw the contemporary medium of woven tapestry fitting into a history of narrative illustration. After the talk, and a brief question period, we all went to the actual gallery space so I could address both my ideas and their questions more concretely than I had been able to do with the slides. Then, at the closing reception, several people who had been unable to attend my talk, like the closing keynote speaker, asked if I would be willing to accompany them to the gallery space and give a condensed version of my talk for their benefit. I happily did so.

      The experience was a lot less intimidating and a lot more rewarding than I imagined. The scholars were interested in both my work and my ideas and the questions they asked were ones that fed right to the heart of why I make the work I do. Only after a good, long discussion of the concepts, imagery and how my ideology was represented in the pieces, did they move on to wanting to know: how were they made, what equipment and materials had I used, how long did it take to make each one........and how much did I sell them for. Too bad most scholars aren't wealthy.

By participating, I have now formed friendships with people at several universities and have offered to consider doing an “artist-in-residence” session if they think my work would add another dimension to their projects. For anyone who is interested in combining their own work and concepts with those of people with similar interests but using different media to express themselves (words, music, dance) I highly recommend the experience. The people at Berkeley enjoyed seeing a different perspective and I came away full of enthusiasm, creativity and ideas. My next major work is at the design stage, thanks to crossovers of thoughts and ideas presented during those three days.

Linda Wallace cutting off her tapestry ONE

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