Judy Pfaff approached her residency at FWM as an opportunity to explore fabric’s three-dimensional qualities. She reflected on its woven structure and began to investigate the fabrication methods of objects usually covered with cloth—lampshades, umbrellas, and mattresses. With the staff of FWM, these objects were dissected and served as inspiration for a new sculptural series.
At FWM, Pfaff took her work in an entirely new direction, creating porous, woven sculptures, distinct from previous works made from assembled solid objects. For the series, various metal wires (steel, copper, brass) were woven into circular shapes and tubular forms; in some places the weaving is delicate and intricate, in others coarse or more irregular. Pfaff expertly combined these woven elements with other related forms and materials (aluminum ducts and glass, for example) to make dynamic yet deliberately composed constructions. There is an uneasy balance to these works as Pfaff plays with the relationship between volume and open space.
Also new for Pfaff with this project was the absence of color. The glossy or matte surfaces of the various metals play off one another, and in one piece, shiny copper adds contrast to the rust and silver of its woven counterparts. As curator and art critic Judith Stein wrote about this series, Pfaff “exploits the unadorned surfaces of glistening industrial ductwork, or the naturally variegated coloration of tin cans and containers” (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition brochure, Philadelphia, 1991).