Idaho State University

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About Rudy Kovacs

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Artist Statement

My art practice is deeply rooted in my scholarly research. For the last decade, I have been exploring the hand-jacquard woven form using computer technology. Learning about jacquard weaving and computer design capabilities as tools has become a direction for my research and creativity since 1995. This exploration first began at Fondazione Arte Della Seta Lisio, Florence, Italy, and has continued at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles. In 2002, as curator of the exhibition An Academic Celebration of Idaho Artists, a collection of art by faculty of Idaho's public colleges and universities, I traveled through Idaho to pick up the work from the participating artists at Boise State University, College of Southern Idaho, Lewis and Clark State College, North Idaho College, and the University of Idaho. These travels became the impetus for my research project entitled Idaho Markings as Narrative: the Woven Form.

The aim of my research project was to develop both natural and fabricated markings into a narrative; consequently, I photographed marks in the Idaho landscape, originally intending to produce twelve jacquard-woven forms using materials made out of cotton and paper thread. These woven forms were developed from my aesthetic interest in markings on the Idaho landscape, which is part of my heritage now, since I have been living in Idaho for thirty years. Residence over three different time periods at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, which offers state-of-the-art equipment, computer technology, and a library that is always current, was the studio base for my research and productivity.

The Centre works in collaboration with international artists and is a center for design, research, promotion, and innovation in the making of textile art. This research project gave me the opportunity to continue my work in exploring hand-jacquard weaving and the use of computer technology for my project, Idaho Markings as Narrative: the Woven Form. As a result, I have completed sixteen jacquard-woven pieces. Two of these pieces - -"Idaho Markings as Narrative #2" and "Idaho Markings as Narrative #5" - - were selected for the 2010 Idaho Triennial exhibition, opening September 4th at the Boise Art Museum. The remaining fourteen woven pieces are exhibited here in the John B. Davis Gallery. All woven forms are titled "Idaho Markings as Narrative" and numbered 1 through 16, only for the purpose of cataloging the work.

I wish to give thanks to the ISU Humanities/Social Sciences Research Committee, the Idaho Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting my research and, in particular, this body of work. I also wish to pay respect to the following people, who have been a part of my life concerning this work. Memories are a powerful tool, and for their part in shaping mine, I am thankful, especially for their collaboration and encouragement in ideas about the meaning of being human in the process of making art: Bill Brown, Fidalma Lisio, Robert Brain, and Rudy Kovacs, Sr., my father.

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