Created in celebration of Asian American/Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, this kite is currently featured in the lobby display case at Sulzer Regional Library. Available to ship June 5, 2023.
Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments of fabric, scrolls, drawings, and books collected during his travels.
In this kite entitled "Lavaliere," Thompson experiments with texture and form to create a captivating abstract composition. Keeping within a palette of rich earth tones, the kite balances bold green and black color-blocking against carefree, gestural forms, each element contrasted by a neutral background of found paper and mottled color. Stretching and twisting across the canvas is a thin black line, coiling in on itself like a creeping tendril. Loosely shaded to create depth and texture, the lines end in oblong forms reminiscent of budding fruit, one adorned with a repeated flower pattern and the other fading into the shadowy background. The kite is highly worked to achieve a perfectly distressed finish and shaded with dark pigments for a moody atmosphere, appearing almost charred along the bottom.
Thompson has earned an international reputation for his kite works, an engrossing project initiated by the artist more than a decade ago.
Split bamboo, muslin, silk, paper, pigments.
