Inventing new patterns: Abby Ausherman at Harvester Arts

In “Anatomy of a Bond,” Abby Ausherman deftly employs pieced and repurposed textiles as metaphors for identity and connection. The exhibition doubles as Ausherman’s thesis for her Master of Fine Arts in studio art from Wichita State. It’s on view through April 26 at Harvester Arts at the Lux, 120 E. 1st St. N. in downtown Wichita.

The two largest pieces in the exhibition, “I Am Not Only My Inheritance” and “Anatomy of a Bond,” are shaped quilts, each more than five feet in length. The artist formed both into mathematical knots: closed loops with no beginning or end. If they are stand-ins for the self, they read as static at first. But each piece offers a suggestion of connection or transformation. 

“Anatomy of a Bond" is composed of quilted panels made from found and screen-printed fabric in a warm color palette that includes deep red, bubblegum pinks, and tangerine-peel orange. Ausherman screen-printed some of the darker, more saturated fabrics with patterns that allude to networks — maybe human-made, maybe the kind instinctively formed between root systems. These contrast with patterned, traditionally feminine panels made from what appear to be vintage materials. It may be closed-off and alone, but this system signals for connection in more than one way. The knot of “Anatomy of a Bond” is slightly cocked to one side, almost corporeal. 

Ausherman quilted twisted-ladder strands of DNA onto “I Am Not Only My Inheritance,” which hangs on another wall in the gallery. The bottom of this quilted knot drapes on the floor. By the second week of the exhibition, it had been stepped on by gallery visitors who left faint footprints behind. The unexpected(?) interaction turns the bottom part of the piece into a doormat. Nevertheless, this too is a closed loop. But in three places, a riot of iridescent and colorful fabric clings to its surface. These fabric “growths” — and the title of the work — suggest the possibility of moving beyond our genetic inheritance. It recalls epigenetics, the study of how our environment influences our genetic code. 

While “Anatomy of a Bond” and “I Am Not Only My Inheritance” are carefully composed and self-contained, the rest of the works in the exhibition explore the sometimes messy relationships between people. “Humanstrations” dominates the gallery space, a large, walled-off section of Harvester Arts’ expansive new digs that occupies the largest suite on the bottom floor of The Lux apartment building.

The installation is composed of 18-22 long stuffed tubes made from repurposed quilts of various vintages, patterns, and color combinations. The source materials of some of the forms are pristine, but most show a bit of wear. Some hang from cords suspended overhead, while others protrude from the walls. The ends of the forms are variously finished: neatly, like a bolster pillow, cauterized with rope, or tied off with dangling fringe.

A sign at the entrance to the space advises visitors that they may gently interact with the piece. At the opening on April 4, both gallery visitors and dancers who performed at the reception did so, dislodging batting and strewing some of the unattached pieces around the floor. When I walked through the gallery the following week, the installation had transformed — rather than hanging apart, many of the quilted forms gently folded into one another.

“I Am Not Only My Inheritance” and “Anatomy of a Bond” may be wired for growth and connection, but they are also explicitly individual. “Humanstrations” is about community — how we entangle ourselves, separate, and sometimes come together again, occasionally a bit worse for wear thanks to the enterprise of being in relationship with others. The malleability of the installation emphasizes that our connections can feel caring and supportive or fractious and confusing — even damaging.

Pieced together from disparate scraps to make a coherent whole, there’s an inherent richness in quilting-as-metaphor. In “Anatomy of a Bond,” Ausherman both harnesses this meaning and, like the adornments on “I Am Not Only My Inheritance,” creates her own new patterns. 

The Details

“Anatomy of a Bond,” a Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition by Abby Ausherman
April 4-26, 2025, at Harvester Arts at the Lux, 120 E. 1st St. Suite 115 in Wichita

Learn more about Ausherman’s work on her website and Instagram account. 

The thesis exhibitions “Human:Nature” by Megan Messer and “Infixed Whispers” by Brookelle Peterson Robertson are also on view at Harvester. A closing reception for all three exhibitions will take place from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, April 25. 

The Harvester Arts gallery is open to the public 3-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. Harvester is also open 5-9 p.m. Mondays during the meeting of the Wichita Sketch Club.

Emily Christensen is a freelance journalist and one of the co-founders of the SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation.

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