Love House gallery displays Southern textile artist's work

Ellen Kochansky doesn’t make your grandmother’s quilts.

But without the traditions of the past, she couldn’t make the textiles currently on display in the Love House gallery.

The South Carolina textile artist channels the rich history and personality of the South — with a contemporary twist.

In collaboration with the Center for the Study of the American South, Kochansky’s textiles will be on display at the Love House and Hutchins Forum through April.

Kochansky owns and designs for the label EKO, and she has been creating textiles and quilts for the past 30 years.

Her home in rural South Carolina is her studio and base for inspiration, she said.

“The history is so deep,” she said. “This place is so generous with creative imagery.”

Lisa Beavers, events manager at the center, said Kochansky’s textiles harmonize with the center’s mission to explore Southern themes, culture and iconography.

“Her work explores the connection between the tangible and intangible of memories, family and history,” Beavers said.

Bernie Herman, chairman of the American studies department, orchestrated the showcase of Kochansky’s artwork at UNC.

The exhibition relates to a course Herman teaches on folk, self-taught, vernacular and outsider art.

His students examine the intersection between cultural traditions and contemporary arts.

Kochansky tells stories by compiling and composting cast-off materials like bits of bird wings, dried flowers and old documents.

She said she enjoys the dynamic of combining text and images to create textile decoupages.

In one series, Kochansky preserves the memory of the old Southern industry of textile mills.

She incorporates printed interviews of those who once worked in the factories.

Kochansky said her favorite textile on display at the gallery illustrates a part of her personal history.

In “War Correspondence,” Kochansky integrates shreds of her mother’s letters to her husband during World War II to reinvigorate the story of her past.

She said her mother shredded the letters after Kochansky’s father died about 10 years ago. She saved the remains to weave into a piece.

Kochansky said that her layered textiles made of recycled materials represent the multifaceted nature of the world.

“Our voices are both words and pictures,” she said.

“It’s all the layers of history, and effectively, we grab the patterns of history and memory.”

Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.