About Collaborations II

This is the culmination of a project in which photographer John Nollendorfs and textile artist Robert Hillestad worked together in giving new meaning to the process of visual iteration.

The project was set in motion when John visited  Robert’s studio and was inspired by  recent samples of pleated fabric, machine embroidery, and twisted yarn, all hand dyed in brilliant colors.  

John explored the visual feast with a high resolution digital camera. His explorations  turned a fragment of embroidery into an urban aerial view, a snip of pleated fabric became an exotic terrain.

Robert was inspired by John’s prints and commenced manipulating textile materials in dynamic new ways.  John, returned several times to again explore Robert’s new work.  

A cyclical and collaborative project emerged much like a similar one they pursued 10 years earlier.  The joint collection of textile art and prints that evolved is presented in this exhibition.

John Nollendorfs is a commercial  photographer; Robert Hillestad is a studio artist and design educator.