Art twined together

No one knows what kind of sculpture Jennifer Reifsneider will create Monday through Thursday in the Coastline Art Gallery.

For that matter, Reifsneider doesn’t know either.

The Long Beach artist, who is the first artist-in-residence for Coastline Community College, plans to show up at the gallery, 10156 Adams Ave., Monday morning with 30 to 40 balls of twine, a few sewing machines and a mood to experiment. Reifsneider has asked Coastline students and members of the public to stop by the gallery, offer ideas and even join in the making of the sculpture — or sculptures, if that’s the way it pans out.

“I don’t know what they’re going to come up with, and I’m letting that be part of the process,” said Reifsneider, a candidate for a master’s in fine arts at Cal State Long Beach.

The project may be abstract, but for those in the know, it has a historical component as well. In the 1920s, according to historical accounts, an encyclopedia company bought land in Huntington Beach and gave away a small parcel to everyone who bought a set of encyclopedias. Each of the twine balls measures 274 feet — the length of the perimeter of one of the “encyclopedia lots.”

The intent of next week’s project, Reifsneider said, is to show how the same space can be used for countless purposes. She and her collaborators may cut up the twine balls, tie them into nets, use them to trace the outline of human bodies or do any number of other things.

The twine itself has a personal significance to Reifsneider, who grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. As a child, she got used to thinking of twine as a supple material.

“I have a friend who told me twine is very unfriendly because it’s prickly,” Reifsneider said. “But it’s friendly to me, because I grew up on the farm.”

The work Reifsneider and her helpers complete will appear alongside the artist’s finished pieces in “Common Thread,” a show that will run March 25 to April 24 in the gallery. Reifsneider and 13 other artists will exhibit pieces created out of twine and other fibers.

Jay Sagen, the exhibit’s curator and a Coastline professor, said he offered the artist-in-residence spot to all the participants in the show, and Reifsneider’s idea proved the best match.

“I liked her work, and I like conceptually what she was attempting to do and the fact that it involved students of ours working with her,” he said. “I think for us, it was a good fit.”

Reifsneider is as curious as anyone what the final product will look like.

“That’s part of the fun of it,” she said. “I figure out what I’m going to do next by what I’ve just done.”

If You Go

What: Interactive sculpting sessions with Jennifer Reifsneider

Where: Coastline Art Gallery, 10156 Adams Ave., Huntington Beach

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday; 1 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday

Contact: (714) 963-8475