Textile-based multi-media artist and educator Victoria Manganiello shares her unique process that transforms colorful dye and thread into architectural, textile pieces; we were especially excited to hear about her new documentary series "Woman Interwoven" that looks at the history of textiles and womanhood across geographies.
"Get Me Out of Here," Victoria Manganiello, mixed media installation, 8' x 8' x 5'
Marjorie Martay–
I’m delighted today to be speaking with Victoria Manganiello. What’s so amazing about Victoria is she’s on the Art & Style: Forbes List 30 Under 30 in 2019 for the USA and Canada… pretty impressive! She teaches part-time in Textiles at Parsons School of Art and Design and New York University. How do you like teaching, is it something you really respond to? Is it something you’re doing to connect with students?
Victoria Manganiello–
I loved being a student when I was coming to the close of my undergraduate years which I did at Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, New York. I remember thinking to myself– “how do I become a student forever?” I loved the community, the direction, the support, the context, and the opportunity to walk into a room and have a dialogue that focused on my interests. It quickly occurred to me that being a student forever could be continued by being a teacher. Ever since I was a kid, I was interested in community and organizing a dialogue so it came naturally to me. I left undergrad and had a job in the corporate side of the art world for about three years. Then, I went back to get my masters in art education. By that point, I had decided I wanted to focus on education and ultimately, I found my work where I am now– part-time faculty at Parsons and NYU. It’s exactly what I hoped it would be. It’s a chance for me to continue being a student. Every semester I get to rework my syllabi and introduce some of the new themes, concepts and materials that are also interesting to me. I think this is useful to my students in the sense that they get to work with a practicing artist who in real time is exploring these themes, it’s not only looking backward but looking into the future. But, they’re so talented and thoughtful. I’m really thankful. I’ve gotten so much out of being in the classroom on a personal and creative level.
Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
That’s phenomenal. In my past, when I’ve had incredible teachers who love what they are doing, it makes you so much better as a student and a teacher, it makes you so much more creative. It’s the symbiotic relationship that really works. It’s also smart on your part that you’ve got a part-time job to support your practicing art. It’s difficult to make that work and not have some money coming in, and something that’s continuous.
Victoria Manganiello–
It’s a reliable income. I’m sure I’m not the first one to be an adjunct professor and talk about the things that make it tricky. But, in the sum of it, financially, it is reliable. I know I have my classes each week and I can rely on university facilities which means impressive and unique tools and materials. It allows my studio practice to have less pressure from a market point of view which makes my art work better. I’m making it for me. Because it needs to exist. So that it can be a part of a dialogue and not because I’m trying to support myself on it.
Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
Absolutely. It makes a very big difference. One of the things that I think is so remarkable about your talents is that you can work in a lot of different areas. You’re obviously a phenomenal textile artist, but you can do mixed media. You’re an installation artist. Your work has been exhibited throughout the USA, internationally … I saw your exhibit at The Queen’s Museum! It was very, very good. I live very close to the Museum of Art and Design so I know you did a residency program there then you had an exhibit which was wonderful. Then you were also at the Tang Museum, the Armory Center in Pasadena, and Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, I’ve been lucky enough to show my work in a lot of different contexts and being New York based means that my community is mostly New York. I’ve been excited for any opportunity to go beyond the limits of the city. In addition to the list you just read, I had a show at the Indianapolis Contemporary Art Museum last summer. It was my first time there; it was a great chance to get outside the northeast. I had a show in Santa Fe last year. It’s been really nice to meet other people.
The medium I work with, textile, I’ve taken it into other realms like installation, performance, and interactive work. Showing it in different places helps activate the work from its many titles and genres.
"Computer 1.0," Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello and Julian Goldman
Marjorie Martay–
It’s so interesting that you’re in so many different mediums, and you’ve been able to express yourself in those mediums to a wonderful level. I’m very impressed. How are you dealing with the coronavirus?
Victoria Manganiello–
I’m in Brooklyn. I have a studio, but I’m unable to access it since the stay-in-place order which I guess was about four weeks ago. I haven’t been able to go to the studio, but I’m lucky that my family is safe and healthy. I’m counting my blessing. I’m lucky to have people that I can rely on to be able to support those of my friends and family who need me. I’m really lucky to have a great apartment. My partner that I live with is also an artist so the two of us have transformed the apartment.
Once we realized we couldn’t go to the studio there was a brief moment of despair. Not only is my work in the studio, there is a therapy that is associated with it. My work is very monotonous and meditative. When I feel anxious, I get a lot of relief from working on my art. It was a bit of a loss in that sense as well– but we’ve since discovered nooks and crannies in the apartment we didn’t know we had. One hour our living space is a gym, the next it is a restaurant, then a wood shop, then a knitting studio…so we really just transform it between meals. I certainly don’t see this as a good thing, but perhaps the silver lining is a chance to take a closer look at the materials I do have– the ability to be limited and what that can do for my creative output.
"Computer 1.0," Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello and Julian Goldman
Marjorie Martay–
It’s so amazing how when we are in a crisis situation we can utilize things that we didn’t even know existed before. Even finding closets that– “oh I could turn that into an office space!” I know you like cooking, have you found that to be a creative outlet in the coronavirus?
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, on a personal level, I love to cook since I was a kid. I usually cook most of my meals anyway. I guess that habit hasn’t shifted as much as for people who are cooking more than they are used to. I’ve also used a kitchen in my work in the past. The kitchen is 50% of my apartment. In NYC, we understand the value of space so it’s really become a place for making art as well. The cooking which is happening simultaneous to the art making– they have certainly found a way to influence each other. I’ve done a performative piece in the past that involved food and making interesting recipes that highlighted the ingredients. I used their form and presentation to tell stories about ingredients. The particular project I am talking about is called Mordant. I had woven a table cloth and cooked food using ingredients that had historically been used in the creation of natural color dye. I served that food directly on the table cloth so that people joining me could facilitate the color meeting the cloth. Our conversation during the dinner would be centered around the relationship of rituals with dinner, our current relationship to color and how society and globalization, and industry have moved us so far from understanding where our color and materials come from. I took that project to a couple different places around the world where I collaborated with local weavers and chefs to do the same thing in their place using their recipes and ingredients. That project took me as far as Transylvania. I guess it’s two year ago now that we got the grant to go to Transylvania. Now it’s much more local in the apartment. I’ve been tinkering with the recipes that me and my partner are eating for dinner and seeing what are some interesting ways we can play with them in vein of that project, Mordant.
"Mordant," mixed media and textile, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
So you actually make your own dyes? Do you do that in the kitchen?
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, the natural ones I do. It surprises a lot of people because we now live in this synthetic world, but the colors that have defined history have come from natural resources. It’s only about 160 years ago that synthetic color was invented. Before that, all the colors we used to dye textiles, to apply to canvas and architectural structures all came from natural sources. Some of them actually do last quite long and they’re not going to just disappear if you apply them correctly.
In all of our kitchens, it’s very likely that you’d find something like turmeric which is a great dye– onion skins, pomegranate skins, carrot tops– these are all colors we can use. Those are also the parts of the food that we normally throw away, but you can get some really rich colors from them.
Dye mixing, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
It’s so amazing that from nature we can make so many different things.
Victoria Manganiello–
It’s something that I really like to use my art work to focus on because I also use a lot of highly synthetic materials and I consciously combine them for the sake of having this conversation. Asking questions like what do we expect from something that is “natural” or “synthetic”? Do we have expectations for the way it should look or behave or the way we should interact with it? But, often times, it’s more of spectrum than a binary between those two things– natural and synthetic.
Marjorie Martay–
That’s very interesting. I remember reading something about you– you had thought you wanted to become an architect but you ended up deciding to work with fabric and create textile canvases? What made you give into that? What was your thinking throughout that progression in school? Was there a particular moment in time when you knew this was what you wanted to do?
Victoria Manganiello–
I don’t know if there was a particular moment or if there was something that was always inside me. But, I wanted to be an architect when I was a kid. Legos were my favorite toy. I was always sketching on graph paper and was really curious about that. My strongest subject in elementary school was geometry. Simultaneously, I was also knitting and sewing as hobbies. Those were the things that kept me busy! Interestingly enough, they were not things that other people in my house were doing. I must have picked it up from someone– maybe a parent of a friend. A lot of people have this story of their grandmother teaching them to knit, but I taught myself how to do a lot of that as a kid and still continue to do some of them incorrectly…because I never learned them officially. But, maybe that’s where innovation can have a potential! Ultimately, I did take architecture classes in my high school and I was pretty set on going that direction. For one reason or another, I decided to go to a liberal arts school instead and get a more general education.
It was my first semester of college that I took a textile class and I fell in love with it. It was a chance for me to see these things that had previously been hobbies in the context of art and design. I was shown by my professors precedents I had never seen before. I was also learning about cultural and political histories of textiles. For example, the way that the native Americans had to adjust their traditions in order to keep themselves safe during colonialism. These were things that started to inspire me. Eventually, I came across an article written by Anni Albers in her book called “On Designing.” It’s a great essay and she talks about those of us who are inclined to become architects have the same type of brain as those of who are inclined to become weavers. She draws this comparison about structure and the first shelter was a tent made from textile. She also talks about gender and how our societies steer women towards soft textile making material and men towards hard, rigid, architectural material. When I read that, I was like she’s totally talking about me. Maybe I’ll find my way towards architecture in some way or another in the future. My installation work is quite large scale. I’m actually working on a pretty big piece that will be on view in September, as long as the world can resume! I am thinking about space and using my materials to make space and work within space. I think there still might be a bit of architecture in there.
Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
That’s fantastic. I’ve always been an admirer of Anni Albers. I knew she must have been one of your major influences. Was there anyone else in the textile world that you were impressed with?
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, there are the goddesses and grandmothers of textiles…Sheila Hicks was someone who I had been really inspired by. Lenore Tawney is another person who had worked with textiles and made something that you could totally relate to architecture. Ruth Asawa, I love her work. I am inspired by artists who are working with other media too. El Anatsui is someone I can think of who is kind of textile, but not textile at the same time. He makes these large scale sculptural pieces out of metal but they resemble the softness and organic nature of a textile…or Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu are two painters who I absolutely love and hope to make enough money one day to collect their work!
Marjorie Martay–
Me too!
Victoria Manganiello–
That’s the dream– to have a Mark Bradford. Those are artists that are thinking about material, color, and abstraction in the same ways I am even though they’re not using textile in the same way. You might say they are using textile in the way they are applying paint to canvas– it’s just not one they’re weaving themselves.
Marjorie Martay–
Yes but I can see the correlation between your work and theirs. I just recently saw an exhibit by Julie Mehretu and it was mind blowing. It was so beautifully done. Her paintings are fantastic. There was also an interesting video where she showed how she works. She keeps on adding one element after another, and it’s fascinating to watch. She is one talented woman. Can you describe how you paint with yarn and your fascination with cloth?
Victoria Manganiello–
I work with these really slow, meticulous techniques that are certainly not enjoyable for everyone. I spin most of yarn. I have a spinning wheel that I use which has gotten a lot of use during quarantine especially while watching TV. It’s very slow, but again, for me, I really enjoy the process. It’s meditative. I like feeling the material as it flows through my hands, and I’m used to it so much so that I don’t really have to use my brain. I can deactivate my brain– which allows for the meditation. I use fibers like wool, silk, and cotton. I’ll also integrate some synthetics also. I make my dye as we talked earlier– the natural dyes. I also use synthetic dyes that I mix with acid and fiber reactive dyes. Then eventually when the yarns have been dyed I’ll bring them to my loom and as I’m weaving I’ll also incorporate dye– almost as if I’m painting on the loom while I’m building the canvas. So, I think about these pieces, the woven paintings, as paintings, but also sculpture because they’ve been constructed as their surface is developed as well. I love working with textile and I discover a new reason every single day. Thinking broadly about it, it is a material that all humans on the planet have an understanding of. You don’t have to be an expert or manufacturer to know what cloth is. We all wear it. It touches us intimately all moments of our lives no matter your race, gender, age, religion– it’s just a universal thing. It’s hard to think of other things that are that universal. I like the idea that I can make an object that any person, no matter who they are, can look at and understand and have their own personal story to ascribe to it. I also like that textile and cloth have been closely attached to the stories of women throughout time and history. Of course there have been many exceptional stories that include men but we often associate the creation of textiles to women. I’m fascinated by those stories and they continue to inspire me from all points of view…that could be an indigenous woman weaving cloth in the tradition of her society and land for centuries. Or it could be the women who were hand-weaving the memory core in the Apollo mission using conductive thread and wires. Women have been a part of textile from all these different sides. I am also working on a documentary right now with that exact theme and inspiration– telling the stories of women using textiles in unexpected industries.
Marjorie Martay–
That’s fantastic. Who is going to be supporting you? Where are you in the development of the documentary?
Victoria Manganiello–
We are in very early stages. It’s a concept I’ve been thinking about for a long time, mostly because it’s been inspiring my artwork. Anytime I’ve encountered a story of a woman who has been using textile in some exciting or inspiring way. That inspiration has found its way into my inspiration, my performance, or my paintings. Maybe six months ago I teamed up with a woman who is a documentary filmmaker, her name is Sarah Moshman. Together we were like “hey we can do this in real life!” So we have started raising money from our communities. We only started doing that right before the virus began so our momentum came to a halt, but I’m excited to start it back up again. We are raising the money to make a sizzle reel which we can use to show to production companies and other funders what the feel, look, and sentiment of the project will be.
Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
I’ve been on the board at New York Foundation for the Arts. You might want to consider trying for a NYFA grant. I would do that. If you get that, especially in your area, you might have a good opportunity and they give out $7,500. They might even be suggesting grants right now!
Victoria Manganiello–
Thank you for that tip, I will definitely check it out. That’s another part of this virus. I’ve been more focused than usual in applying to things and getting my work out there so thank you for that tip.
Marjorie Martay–
Oh, you’re welcome.
When you do your paintings do you have an image in mind before you start? Could you talk about that process?
"Mordant," mixed media and textile, Victoria Manganiello
Victoria Manganiello–
I’d say 9 times out of 10 I don’t have an image in my head. I’m a very intuitive maker. Because my work is so material based and I’m creating the materials myself, the final product is not always a part of that original vision. The inspiration is more like “look at this beautiful color, let’s see what it looks like when I put it on that yarn.” I want to make yarn now, then I spin it, create it, and it finds its way. So 9 out of 10 that’s how it goes, but as I’m spending the dozens of hours creating these things, the concepts brew as I’m meditating with the work. The stories of the work that come about are revealed to me while I’m already making them. Every once in a while I don’t do it like that… the Mordant project example was different. Once I decided I wanted to work on a very performative, collaborative project, the weaving that I was doing had a very specific intention. I was making table clothes that were going to be part of these food performances so that’s an example where I had the vision first. I like working intuitively. I like when these ideas and concepts can bubble up during the making. It’s an opportunity for the work to very genuinely be a symbol of who I was in that moment and where I was in that moment including the politically and social climate. It’s a symbol of one person’s experience in that time.
"Mordant," mixed media and textile, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
It sounds a little like abstract painting. Once you are in that Zen like place and you are working yarn or paint and making it come together. When you’re painting it just flows– the colors meld in to each other and there are surprising things that happen as you go along. You say oh, I really like that so I’m going to do that some more. It’s similar probably to what you’re doing with yarn and weaving canvases.
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, and another reason I like to work with textiles. It requires a specific framework. In order to create the woven structure, I have to follow a set of predetermined rules. If a painter is in front of a blank canvas, there aren’t any rules except paintbrush needs to dip in paint and touch the canvas. Besides that, instructions are totally open. But with weaving, I do need to be sure I manage my tension and my yarn is strong enough to undergo that tension. I need to use mixed dyes that will actually adhere to the fibers and stay there permanently and not wash out. All of these regulations and framework feel to me like they offer so much freedom. I am intimidated by a blank canvas. I don’t feel like there’s an entry point whereas these structures get me into it and eventually I find these pockets of innovations or these moments I can make it my own or break a rule and see what happens. I think that’s what I always liked about math… you can follow along, but then you can guide its story whichever direction you want it to go.
Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello
Marjorie Martay–
It’s so interesting hearing you talk. I can hear the architect in you. I can hear the structural aspect of it and how it’s aligning with you working in this medium.
Victoria Manganiello–
That’s great for me to hear, because I don’t get to see it in myself. Thanks for sharing. I like that.
Marjorie Martay–
Talk to me about “Get Me Out of Here,” and installation you did with geographical panels. What were you trying to achieve with that piece? I think it’s absolutely beautiful.
Victoria Manganiello–
Thank you. Yes, that piece was most recently shown at the Knock Down Center. It was in a show there about a year ago. Just like I’ve been talking about, it’s made in that same way where I’m spinning yarn, dyeing yarn, and constructing these pieces. The maps are quite noticeable on those pieces, but most of the abstraction in all of my work does stem from geography. As time has gone on, I have embraced the abstraction more. The piece “Get Me Out of Here” was at a point when I was more literal about the geography. From a conceptual point of view, I was thinking about the relationship between spaces. We often think of ourselves as associated to one place, but I think it’s much more complex than that. I wanted to create an object that offered a space between places so we could be on a map but existing between fixed locations. I am very curious about this idea that we live in this modern time where our borders are no longer defined by the landscape. It’s only very recently that we were very communicate and conquer or collaborate with people who were on the other side of a mountain range. Before technology, you just had to deal with people that you had access to and a lot of our political and social borders align with those graphical ones. Now that we have something like the internet we are no longer constrained by that and we can collaborate, conquer, and communicate with people so far away from us. This will be an episode in our documentary series, but textiles and craft were one of the early examples of this internet, communication boom. There are so many people online that are sharing their techniques working with weaving, knitting, etc and using Facebook or Youtube to share. The internet was the perfect place for craftspeople. They were hungry to share and communicate where before we had that technology they were isolated to their local community.
"Get Me Out of Here," Victoria Manganiello, mixed media installation, 8' x 8' x 5'
Marjorie Martay–
One of the things I was talking to another artist about is the importance of technology today. If you think about it, can you think about being in this crisis without having the opportunity to connect through technology? We would be at a huge loss. It’s so interesting how that has really transformed how we live today. Completely. I think very much so in the art world. It’s going to be even more important in the future.
Victoria Manganiello–
It’s been interesting to hear what people have been advising from a professional standpoint what us as artists and other art professionals should be doing or preparing for… like you said, the way technology has come to define us in this modern time inspires me a great deal. It shows in that piece that you asked about “Get Me Out of Here,” but it’s also a part of a lot of my other work.
Marjorie Martay–
One of the other interesting things you’ve done is run a non-profit gallery, No Home Gallery. You are an artist, curator, producer! What was that experience like for you?
Victoria Manganiello–
I have such a fond place in my heart for that project even though it’s behind me and we stopped working on it a number of years ago. I think that art is activated by an audience. The same way I love being in a classroom, and I love being a teacher… I’m also really interested in producing and curating so that art can be seen and interacted with. When I was doing No Home Gallery I was focusing on transforming, at least for myself, that curator role into an educator role. I was facilitating experiences where people could have communication on a topic that they might never have discussed before or that they could interact with someone that they don’t know or might have different views than. I was working on that project while I was in graduate school and it was a great chance to work with other peers who were in grad school. It was really scrappy. We just said we want to have a show and here’s this artist we want to support. We had 14 shows with No Home Gallery, and we were everywhere from apartments to banks to libraries. It was a spontaneous, fun way to create a community. It certainly not the first or last project of its kind. New York has been home to so many of these spontaneous, unconventional art-viewing experiences/pop-ups. I have such a fondness for my own contribution to that history.
Marjorie Martay–
I have to tell you I love the name. Was that your idea?
Victoria Manganiello–
It wasn’t me alone that ran the project. I can’t remember who came up with the name. I quite like it too. It was exactly what we were thinking. I can picture us now sitting around saying we want to do this and it felt like it was defined by its lack of location.
Marjorie Martay–
One of the other interesting things I’d like to ask about is that you do like to collaborate. A lot of artists like to work by themselves, but I sense that there’s a part of you that you really come alive when you collaborate? For example, you did that project with Julian Goldman called “Computer 1.0” and now you are talking about the documentary with Sarah Moshman. What was it like working with Julian?
Victoria Manganiello–
Yes, I love to collaborate and I think as a process, I really enjoy it. Maybe, that’s the teacher in me. I love facilitating and I think you can get so much out of working together. There is a proverb that says if you try to bring water from one place to another using your hands individually you’ll only move a few drops, but if you bring your two hands together you’re able to hold much more. That feels so true for me about collaboration and working together. But, the “Computer 1.0” project– I had this vague vision where I wanted to take large scale textile installations that I had been making and make them more interactive and kinetic in a literal way. I was also very inspired by the history of the computer which includes in its story the weaving loom. So, Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801…he was based in France and a silk merchant. He discovered a method of weaving that was able to automate the process. Before this point, all weaving was done manually and there were complex tools to facilitate this, but every row of weaving had to be operated manually so that complex patterns were expensive and took a long time. His invention was able to speed up that process. It was the first automated task direction tool we had ever invited. It wasn’t long after that that the first version of the computer we use today was made in the same format or in the same system as that loom. We live in this world, like we were discussing before, we are so connected to technology and textiles…but, most of us don’t realize how closely those two things are linked. That the computers we use are just the modern ancestor to their fore-bearers which is the weaving loom. This story inspired me endlessly, and some of the early coders, actually the first computer coder (the computer I’m talking about) was a woman named Ada Lovelace. She is getting a bit more attention now, because people are starting to appreciate the contributions that women have given to history. But for most of the computer’s history, she and all the other women who have contributed have not been given the spotlight. This all inspired me but I didn’t have any technical or technological background so I called up my friend Julian and we were discussing all of these themes. He also had an interest in textiles and so we started working together and tinkering. The vision I had totally transformed when we started working together. It really showed the value of collaboration and take our individual assets and get something much more than twice from them. The project we’ve been working on it now for about 3 years now and we’ve exhibited iterations of it around the country. I’ll be excited to share with you some new things that are ahead for us too.
Marjorie Martay–
What is next for you?
Victoria Manganiello–
A bunch of things are on hold or postponed because of the pandemic. I’ll be excited for a big show that will be opening in September hopefully at Tower 49 Gallery in Midtown. That show will be up for a full year and it’s in a large lobby space and gallery. I have a show with Art and Buildings and that was already supposed to open, but we are postponing it. Then I have a show with A.I.R. Gallery where I’m currently an artist fellow. I was also meant to do a residency in Melbourne, Australia this summer at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, but that’s also probably going to be postponed. It was meant for July.
Marjorie Martay–
I would imagine they will reschedule it. You’re not going to lose it. Once they make that commitment, they always follow through.
Textile and mixed media, Victoria Manganiello
Victoria Manganiello–
Right, yes, all of those institutions I just mentioned have been really communicative and exactly like you’ve said they’ve communicated to me that they fully intend to reschedule everything. I got some grant money for a few of the projects. Most of the funders have agreed to extend the support to whenever the projects end up taking place. I’m very grateful for that.
Marjorie Martay–
That’s fantastic. You should feel so proud what you’ve accomplished. You’ve been such a delight to talk to today. I’ll never look at textiles or fiber art the same way! I’m very much impressed with the breadth of your work– you’ve gone from installations to woven paintings to kinetic sculptures. I would really have to say that you’ve indeed moved into the fine art realm.
Victoria Manganiello–
Great, yes, It’s been very interesting to have that conversation with people over the years– where do textiles find their home? I certainly feel a part of both conversations… a craft, textile conversation and the fine art world. So the future holds more of a blend of all of those things I think.
Marjorie Martay–
Yes, the blend is very important and by having that blend, you don’t know where the potential and the future will go. I wish you tremendous luck and I know you will receive it in the space you’re in... with your incredible talents!
Victoria Manganiello–
I appreciate it and I’m really glad to be a part of your platform along with all of these other wonderful artists!
To see the rest of Victoria Manganiello's work and news on her upcoming exhibitions, please visit: https://www.victoriamanganiello.com/
Keep up to date on her work via Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/victoriamanganiello/