Looking Through a Sewn Sky: Rachel Hayes

walking through color

“Looking Through a Sewn Sky: Rachel Hayes” is a commissioned craft-based art installation at the Georgia Museum of Art for its Jane and Harry Willson Sculpture Garden.

Caught between sculpture, installation, painting and craft, Hayes’ work asks us to look in all directions. She explores the color field genre, craft and contemporary landscape-based art. At first glance, her soft sculptures recall quilts and weavings or midcentury abstract paintings. But her works also engage with natural and built landscape of the garden to create a different kind of experience. Her color-field canopies direct us to look skyward, to the horizon and to our feet, enveloping us with color and light. She invites us to move around, under and through the installation and the moving colors thrown by changing light. In other words, the installation allows us to navigate and engage with the work in a full body experience.

Hayes relied heavily on the museum’s collection to choose colors, compositions and material. Major highlights include Frank Lloyd Wright’s windows(opens in new tab), Joan Mitchell’s “Close”(opens in new tab) and Sam Gilliam’s “Patchwork/Terry,”(opens in new tab) among other favorites in the collection.