Four Seasons Foliage Curtain

Four Seasons Foliage Curtain was inspired by the colours and scenery of Forge Cellars winery, in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and created by the artist for the invitational exhibition, ‘Horizon’.

Time is the subject of Four Seasons Foliage Curtain: the cyclical time of winter-autumn-spring-summer; and the quiet stretches of everyday time, in which the artist works daily in their studio. Over the summer of 2024, Williams dismantled hundreds of (mostly) silk artificial flowers, ironed each petal flat, and hand-stitch-gunned them individually to produce this large, lacey wall work.

Four Season Foliage Curtain refers to the long history of flower and landscape painting, amplifying those genre’s subjects of abundance and change. It pays homage to Forge Cellars’ beautiful building, with its sensitivity to materials and the changing light: whether daily, from dawn-to-dusk, or annually, across the colours of the seasons.

While Williams Ruggi always works in textile — often re-purposed or recycled fabrics — she creates surfaces much like a painter, working as if with daubs of colour.

Thank you to Marina Delaney, curator Ben Marlan, the Trumansburg Conservatory, Rick Rainey and all at Forge Cellars, 3775 Mathews Road, Burdett, NY, 14818