'Grandma's Talking to Ghosts' at Hillestad Gallery

The Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Dec. 1-19 will exhibit work of Jennifer Graham that illuminates the beauty that can be discovered among the artifacts and heirlooms of a family.

Graham, a master's degree candidate in the UNL Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design, used family photos and documents to look deeper into the life and work of her paternal grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease, and is no longer able to pass on family history herself. The result is "Grandma's Talking to Ghosts: A Family History Reclaimed," on exhibit Dec. 1-19 at the gallery on the second floor of the Home Economics Building, 35th Street north of East Campus Loop. An opening reception is 3-5 p.m. Nov. 30.

"My grandmother was a big fish in her little North Dakota pond," Graham said. "She was a city leader in a time when women were supposed to be baking pies and washing dishes. She started the first kindergarten in her town, in the basement of her farmhouse. She lobbied the state legislature to make kindergarten mandatory statewide. Her strength and perseverance continue to resonate in my own life as an artist, a mother, and a teacher."

History, emigration, and her ancestral roots in Iceland -- where mythology and remembrance hold a prominent place in the culture, inspire Graham's work. Reconfiguring women's work -- knitting and embroidery -- in a grandiose, sculptural form, Graham's graduate exhibition incorporates wool, silk, linen and paper. The space her soft sculpture creates evokes the ethereal nature of memory, the deterioration of family history, and the beauty that can be discovered through grief.

The Hillestad Gallery ( http://textilegallery.unl.edu) is part of the Department of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences. Hours are 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call Wendy Weiss, gallery director, (402) 472-6370.