Dianna Frid’s artist’s books and mixed-media works make visible the tactile and pre-verbal manifestations of language. She employs sewing as a prevalent method for interacting with materials such as graphite, rocks, and metals. With these substances, Frid explores relationships between the time of writing and sewing, and the overlaps of transcription, translation, and legibility.

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 framing them in hierarchical opposition. Time, Rhythm, Process, and Matter are never in opposition.

Dianna Frid is Professor in the Art Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Frid has received numerous grants including a 3Arts Next-Level Award, as well as support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

English is Dianna Frid's stepmother tongue.

LINK to extended artist's statement

Above:
From the artist's book SEEDS OF FIRE / LEAP YEAR