The Alchemy of Weaving | The Art Institute of Chicago

The exhibition Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weavings from the Collection explores the creative practice of weaving as distinct from other textile techniques. Weaving functions as a platform for experimentation that remains relevant today, though the practice itself is ancient. Archeological evidence in the form of impressions on ceramic fragments shows that weaving was practiced during the global Neolithic period (about 7000–1700 BCE), as humans began to transition from a nomadic existence and establish permanent settlements. Both clothing and practical household objects were made in this period, and even the earliest evidence indicates that a variety of weaving structures and materials were used. Thus, our earliest archeological records show that people experimented in fibers and structures.

The diligent study of textile history has been a crucial part of the artistic development of the weavers whose work is included in this exhibition. Respect for materials and knowledge of techniques enables each, in their own way, to make informed decisions about what to use and how to use it. Natural materials are prevalent in these works, as these artists value the ability of cotton, wool, and silk to absorb color and reflect light effectively. These practitioners also share an appreciation for the eternal appeal and limitless possibilities of the ancient craft of weaving as a way to communicate ideas about human experience.

Colombian artist Olga de Amaral’s training in architectural design and weaving has led to a unique and varied body of work in which experience, knowledge, materials, and ideas manifest in significant fiber works that are simultaneously delicate and monumental. In Alquimia III (Alchemy III), one of two works by Amaral in the exhibition, fragments of gold leaf over blue pigment are loosely held together by warps and wefts that create a delicate scaffold for what looks like a series of tiles or small golden bricks. It is part of a large group of works begun in the early 1980s focused on the color gold.

Alchemy, the pseudoscientific attempt to turn cheaper metal into pure gold, also accurately characterizes the transformation of thread into cloth. In Amaral’s hands, simple materials—linen, cotton, and pigments—are indeed transformed into objects that are greater than the sum of their parts. Her first use of gold was inspired by an encounter with Japanese kintsugi, the technique of using gold to beautify a flaw in a ceramic—a transformation from broken to beautiful. Gold metal also holds a significant place in the history of South America, both as the material used in some of the region’s highest artistic achievements and as driver of violent European colonialism, though Amaral’s use of gold is not intended to evoke or reflect these problematic histories explicitly. 

Amaral’s Entorno Quieto 5 (Stillness 5), also on view in Threaded Visions, comes from her Entornos series (meaning “environments”), part of the artist’s practice of defining space or creating walls with her weavings. Again, Amaral’s alchemy is on display: through 284 woven ribbons, closely lined up with their edges toward the viewer, light filters to create a moiré pattern. The ripples of the moiré shift as the viewer moves past the work, resulting in a flickering effect reminiscent of an early cinematic experience.

Alchemical weavers in their own right, María Dávila and Eduardo Portillo, who are partners in work and in life, are admired by their fellow artists for their technical virtuosity. With White Dwarf, the Venezuela-based artists have combined four types of thread with contrasting characteristics.

Its disparate raw materials include smooth silk, rough palm fiber, shiny metal thread, and matte alpaca wool deftly combined to create a mosaic-like surface of hues ranging from deep indigo blue to pale silvery white. The palm fiber acts as a visual mortar, holding the tiles of color and texture together. The title refers to the celestial phenomenon known as a white dwarf star, an extremely dense, old star that burns white-hot in the process of collapsing on itself, and the textile belongs to the Portillos’ body of work called an “imagined cosmos.” These works also include meditations on the seasons and times of the day and were commissioned for a conference centered on the global textile trade—specifically the trade and production of indigo dye. The Portillos produce their own dyes, as well as many of their own fibers.

Another work featured in the show, American artist Qualeasha Wood’s Clout Chasin’ is a conceptual marriage of theme and technique that takes the form of an everyday object: a machine-woven cotton blanket. Wood, using her knowledge of the history of machine weaving, has chosen this quotidian object as the vehicle to deliver messages about life in the digital realm.

This new addition to the museum’s permanent collection, which Wood made just last year, illustrates episodes from the artist’s experience of being “doxed”—that is, having her personal information exposed online by a politically motivated antagonist. The sexist and racist comments directed at her have been rendered permanently visible and even tangible in woven form. By presenting these slurs and veiled threats on an object that is meant to provide comfort, Wood forces the viewer to confront them, unable to click away. Like many of Wood’s works, Clout Chasin’ is a collage of screenshots, selfies, and error messages. Employing a digital Jacquard loom to weave her designs, Wood marries the theme of pixelated online images with the earliest computing technology invented to facilitate the age-old craft of weaving.

In total, this exhibition presents the work of 13 artists from five countries who have each chosen weaving as the technique through which to express their unique creative visions. Design, color, motif, texture, and the final dimensions of the fiber object—all determined in advance by the artists’ choices—combine from possibilities that are practically limitless to make some of the world’s most beautiful and innovative examples of weaving, all from the Art Institute’s permanent collection.

—Melinda Watt, Chair and Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator, Textiles

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