Walking into the showroom, visitors see a wooden “one-second time machine,” a human-sized friendship bracelet and ruffled wings. 

The “Interwoven: Fiber Arts and Soft Sculpture” exhibit, in the Visual Arts Center, will be on display through Oct. 25. Two rooms showcase 15 students’ pieces taught by Beili Liu, a studio art professor. 

“Largely, the intent of the course was to really push the balance of what people think of as fiber art,” said Fionayuko Forbes, curator and artist featured in the exhibit. “We were thinking a lot about fiber as materiality, and soft sculpture as an extension of what fiber arts can be.”

Although identified as soft sculpture, some pieces made of stone and wood are the opposite of what visitors expect. Studio arts senior Forbes said the definition of softness sometimes comes from the method of crafting the piece and the meaning behind it. 

“(Pieces in the exhibit) may not be soft to the touch necessarily,” Forbes said. “The way of making (the sculptures was) done with softness and memory in mind. Each artist pushed their ideas of what a fiber (is) or what a soft sculpture was in their own way.” 

UT alumna Mary Fluitt, who majored in studio art, created her piece, rust-colored wearable wings covered in ruffles, by taking apart a second-hand church dress at the seams. 

“I wanted to start with something modest, full coverage and very feminine,” Fluitt said. “I wanted to turn it into the antithesis of what it originally was. … I was thinking a lot about the ideas of modesty and femininity and being confined. I wanted to flip those on their heads.”

As the piece grew, Fluitt said her intention changed. Now, instead of expressing the opposite of the original material, she worked towards redefining femininity and masculinity.

“They’re very societal terms, there isn’t a super clear definition all the time of what makes something feminine, what makes something masculine,” Fluitt said. “I was trying to find nuance in that: Something can be feminine, but can also be very strong, and can also be pride(ful).

Near Fluitt’s piece hangs a tall, colorfully woven friendship bracelet, demonstrating the “distinctly feminine art of weaving,” Kate Phillips, artist and studio art junior, said in a statement. During the work’s first presentation, Phillips invited friends to tie their own knots into the bracelet. 

“This immediately restored the work for me, I gave it back its purpose,” Phillips said. “All the knots I tied myself mean nothing compared to the ones my friends added in.”

Every piece in the exhibit tells a story, and for Forbes, even the arrangement of the exhibit expands the experience. 

“We were thinking a lot about the flow and how to get people to walk through when you think of sculpture(s) and physical forms of art,” Forbes said. “There’s a lot to do with the way that you look at it. The way that you’re standing in place changes what you’re noticing and how you’re interacting with it.”