Coulter Fussell: The Proving Ground

This catalogue accompanies the first museum survey of work by emerging Mississippi-based artist Coulter Fussell. Fussell’s “quilt-works” are multidimensional landscapes of the US South. Often referencing specific regional geographies, her assemblages are materially grounded in rural networks of exchange and reuse: they are constructed entirely from textiles and printed matter donated by neighbors in Fussell’s hometown of Columbus, Georgia, and Mississippi’s Yalobusha County, where the artist now lives. The Proving Ground traces how the “ground” mutates across media in Fussell’s works—from the abstract, negative space of flat decorative patterns to photographic plays on perspective. Using the compositional elements of landscape to create parallels between environmental and interpersonal terrains, Fussell’s art questions the perceptual, psychological, and cultural “grounds” that frame our experience, determine our sense of place, and shape what we believe.