Dianna Frid is an artist working at the intersection of material texts and textiles. Her artist’s books and mixed-media works make visible the tactile manifestations of language. In her work, thread is a vehicle for exploring the relationships between writing and drawing, and the overlaps of transcription, translation, and legibility.

In his formidable yet brief book, How Are Verses Made? (1926), poet Mayakovsky refers to “the material of the rhymes” as “stronger than the other lines.” What is this material of rhymes and rhythms that Mayakovsky alludes to? The recognition of meaningful, nonverbal components of language resonates with Frid’s understanding of words as part of a larger puzzle. While her practice intersects with and borrows from written language, it also wrestles with language and its limits across the less linguistic aspects of art.

Frid was born in Mexico City where she was first exposed to textiles as complex codes of material writing. At the age of fifteen she immigrated, with her family, to Vancouver, Canada. These and other points of reference help her situate her work alongside lineages that embrace art and needlework without placing them in hierarchical opposition. Time, Rhythm, Process, and Matter are never in opposition.

Dianna Frid is Professor in the Art Department at UIC. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has received various grants, including a 3Arts Award and support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

English is Dianna Frid's stepmother tongue.

LINK to extended artist's statement

Above:
Public, Private, Secret, 2024
From the Text Textiles series