Thick beige-and-brown colored fabrics pad the walls of Ukrainian Village storefront space Fernwey. They’re not decorative—these four six-foot-tall quilts, which look more like topographic maps than bed coverings, are the abstract textile works featured in local artist Christalena Hughmanick‘s exhibition “The Fish Don’t Talk About the Water.”
Ikebana artist Yuko Inoue Darcy’s floral arrangement in the far right corner of the gallery is a direct response to the metaphorical earth found in Hughmanick’s quilts and foam displays. Darcy designed the piece, titled Spring Symphony, on the day of the opening without previously speaking to Hughmanick. The primarily yellow arrangement, with pops of pink and purple, is composed with daffodils and hyacinths—the flowers’ chaotic lines contrast with the precisely stitched ones found on the surrounding quilts. “I felt like already she [Hughmanick] had created the ground and atmosphere to prepare for the colorful spring expression,” said Darcy. “Her work doesn’t have much color, but I could feel the temperature change.”
