Growth From Future Past

Erica Siefring

Interview by L. Valena
May 15, 2023

Let's start from the top. Can you please describe the prompt that you responded to?

The prompt I responded to was a kind of apocalyptic-feeling skateboard-looking piece with wires wiggling out of the top of it with metal washers. There was a video that came with it as well, which had some cool sound elements in it. The wires with the washers at the top kind of wiggled and swayed as the cart rolled. I thought that was really interesting.

What were your first thoughts and feelings about it?

I was mostly just thinking about how I would respond to it, and I was thinking about the colors and the forms. I really liked the shapes of the washers, and the repetition of lines that was happening from the wires. Recently I've been working on a lot of quilting projects, and I was thinking about how this could translate into that medium. I was mostly thinking abstractly about color and form, but that wasn't really energizing me that much. I was also thinking about what the person who will be receiving my piece as a prompt would be receiving, kind of both ends of this translation. So that made me feel like I wanted the person after me to be able to have some color to work with.

The tone of the prompt wasn't feeling very true to me, which is why I wasn't feeling very energized by the color palette. So then I started thinking about growth or flowers. What would this look like three thousand years later? What did it look like before things got apocalyptic? Some kind of before and after that's happening here, same with that art translation theme I was just talking about.

I wanted to use similar elements with the wire, but at a different time period of this story. It made me think of a flower cart when I started thinking about it that way.

What happened next?

I started to go through my scrap fabrics. I like to use repurposed materials and things that I already have. I've been trying to not acquire new materials for most of my practice the past few years. I was picking scraps that were speaking to me, that were bright and cheery and telling a nice story together. I picked some blue for the sky, but I didn't want them all to be the exact same, so I flipped some over to get different colors. Then I used my sewing machine to stitch the fabric to a hearty piece of paper. Then I started constructing the flowers. I used a new method I had never used before – I made what are called yoyos. I looked up how to make them – they’re kind of a tire shape, and seem very flowery to me. It starts with cutting out circles, so I did that in different sizes and with different fabrics. I dug up all the washers from my toolbox, found some wire, and started stitching things together.

I stitched some of the yoyos directly to the paper, but some of them I glued to the wire so some things were lifted off the paper. I noticed that the yoyos and fabric flowers I was making started to seem like they were getting clunky and a little bunched up. When you look at bouquets of flowers, often some flowers aren't in full bloom yet, so I didn't want them to all be fully in bloom. Then I had the idea of knotting some colorful yarn onto the washers, so it's still a step in growth beyond a plain washer and wire, but with a little bit of color and texture.

From there, it was just like arranging a flower bouquet on paper, which was fun. Took note of where there were holes and where things needed to be added. I also took some crayons and drew onto the fabric in the background before I attached things down, just to add to the density.

So cool. So in your mind, this is the same scene as the prompt that you responded to, just thousands of years later when nature has taken back over.

Yeah, either a thousand years later or a thousand years before. I can't decide, and I enjoy the ambiguity of that. I sent a picture of it to my sister, and her first reaction to it was coral, which was interesting. I didn't realize that until after I sent it to her, but it does have a sea life kind of impression, and that's not wrong either.

Okay, heavy question: what are your feelings about the apocalypse?

I think there's a lot of media that gets made about it. Ever since I was in middle school, I always loved dystopian novels. When a story takes place in the future with an ambiguous timeline but after the existing society. A lot of the media that I've consumed about that feels like, if there is an apocalypse, there will be some kind of after at some point. The apocalypse will probably look like a bunch of different things, there are a lot of different ways it could play out. Recent weird nuclear threats, and climate catastrophes that are constantly impending, but it's such a slow burn it's really easy to ignore. I think it's a little too big for me to be actively concerned with at all times. I think that's my main feeling about it. I wonder what it might look like via content that other people make, whether a book or a movie or art piece. It's fun to entertain that way, rather than bog myself down about it.

I do love the optimism of these flowers. Do flowers play an important role in your life? Do you have other associations with flowers?

I think springtime always gets me very excited. I've always been into flowers. My mother is a painter and she loves painting flowers. She does plein air paintings mostly, so she loves going to parks and really seems to turn out extra paintings in the springtime. She's a little extra inspired. I think I'm the same way. I appreciate that part of nature, and love going to local parks and gardens -- there are a lot of community gardens in our neighborhood. Whenever I'm walking around, I try to go out of my way to walk through those parks. It's a nice little optimistic treat.

How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?

I think it's a little different from the work I've been making lately. One way it does relate with my work is how it interacts with and touches on the history of quilting and fiber art. That's why I was drawn to making those yoyos. I consider myself an interdisciplinary artist, letting myself think beyond one method of making – grabbing things from my toolbox and using my sewing machine. Bringing all of these different things together to make one piece. It's nice to break some of those rules, I guess, and not box myself in.

Isn't it crazy how many rules we all carry around with us, even if nobody ever told us they were there? I find myself doing that all the time.

Sometimes rules are helpful, and can create more creativity. But certainly that's not always the case.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

The first thing I would say is to think a little harder about when to say yes to a prompt. I should have waited a week, and I ended up needing to ask for an extension. So just consider the scheduling. Also, allow yourself some time to digest all the different ways you can think about it, because there's no guarantee that you're going to receive a piece that is instantly inspiring to you. You have to think about the work from new angles that maybe you weren't expecting.

Call Number: Y105VA | Y106VA.sieGro

Erica Siefring is an interdisciplinary artist from Ohio who loves exploring different materials and processes. Lately her practice has had her investigating fiber arts, traditional women's crafts and the history of quilting and making.