Artists seek out ‘A Common Thread’ with the late Sue Cavanaugh

Char Norman first met Sue Cavanaugh about eight years ago through gallerist Caren Petersen (Muse Gallery, (Not) Sheep Gallery), who represented both artists, recalling in an early August interview how she was immediately struck by Cavanaugh’s intelligence and humor – traits that she said frequently surfaced in Cavanaugh’s textile work.

“(Not) Sheep was really a political gallery addressing some pretty hard issues, and Sue could find humor in that and present her work in ways that really got her point across where it didn’t feel like doomsday scrolling,” said Norman, who described one hand-sewn work where Cavanaugh transformed a businessman’s white-collar, button-up shirt into a pig-like form bursting at the seams with dollar bills. “And it was her comment on government waste and [then Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s] statement that ‘corporations are people.’”

Interviewed in 2020 ahead of her installation “It Is What It Is,” for which she created more than 5,000 paper dolls meant to represent the number of Ohioans who died of Covid in the early pandemic, Cavanaugh said she was compelled to more politically motivated work later in life, seeing in her art a way to potentially reach those who might tune out other messaging.

“Perhaps as I get older, I get more concerned about the country and the world, and I want to have a positive impact,” said Cavanaugh, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2022. “One does what they can, I guess, and one can hope that by saying something in an artistic way, one might be able to reach someone who can’t be reached by other means.” 

This reach continues with “A Common Thread,” a new group exhibition curated by Norman and celebrating the life and work of Cavanaugh, which opened last week at the Ohio Craft Museum and will remain on display through Sept. 26.

Following an open call, Norman allowed each presenting artist to select a swath of fabric from one of Cavanaugh’s larger-scale installations, which could be used for inspiration or repurposed in new work. “And all of the artists are professionals who of course interpreted this in their own way. And some have created literal portraits of Sue, while others you wouldn’t even know Sue was a part of it unless you really looked and found a thread or a piece of fabric,” said Norman, who for her contribution, dubbed “The Other Side of the Veil,” wrapped Cavanaugh’s fabric around her sculptural work as a means of exploring the thin line between life and death. “So, Sue’s work and legacy is carried on in many different ways in the exhibition.”

Among the more literal interpretations is a portrait of Cavanaugh by the Columbus artist Barb Vogel, who described Cavanaugh as “a good friend” in her artist’s statement, sharing how she created a wand scanned portrait on silk that was then “surrounded by Mexican fabric, shibori work, parts of her final installation, and a few pancreases as leaves.” Deb Griffing, meanwhile, repurposed fabric from Cavanaugh to stitch a doll – a nod to their introduction 14 years ago, when Cavanaugh attended a short doll-making session led by Griffing during a retreat.

The exhibition also features a trio of pieces by Cavanaugh representative of three distinct eras of her career, including an early stitched piece, the aforementioned dollar-stuffed pig, and a larger fabric instillation with a sense of movement and texture meant to mimic the look and feel of water, and which Norman said is typical of the massive scale on which the artist began to work toward the end of her life.

“Her final piece was huge, and it was made from a number of parachutes she had taken and upcycled,” Norman said. “It was called ‘Let’s Dance,’ and it was installed at the Mansfield Museum of Art and filled the whole foyer. And she knew at that point she was dying.”

Norman said that from her perspective, the larger, water-themed work by Cavanaugh installed within “A Common Thread” sees the artist exploring multiple themes, including travel and the way ocean currents can guide immigrants to U.S. shores. Fittingly, these concepts are also interrogated by other artists displayed at the Ohio Craft Museum, which is just one in a series of planned stops for the exhibition, which will also make its way to the Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego, California before making a December homecoming at the Cultural Arts Center, where the displayed works will expand beyond fiber artists to include the likes of printmakers and glass blowers. “And the texture and movement in the glass is very reminiscent of the texture and movement in the fiber pieces Sue made,” Norman said. 

While the bulk of the artists showing in “A Common Thread” had some personal connection with Cavanaugh, a handful knew her only through her work, compelled to take part by the idea of helping carry it forward.

“I think that grabbed some of the artists, knowing we were carrying on her legacy,” Norman said, “and making sure that the work has another life.”