Friday Fibers Roundup

October 13, 2016

From surreal fashion worlds and collaborative weaving shows to a long lost tradition of clam silk harvesting, this week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a variety of exhibitions, historical textiles, curator appointments, and a goofy GIF!

1) This Solar System Quilt by Ellen Harding Baker was created as used a teaching aid in astronomy classes back in 1876. The quilt is currently a part of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s National Quilt Collection (via Art the Science).

2) Camille Ann Brewer (former Director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium) was just appointed as first full-time curator of contemporary textile art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum.

3) Woven Together, a collaborative weaving exhibition by Wence and Sandra Martinez, explores the combination of textiles and modern design. The show is on display at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MoWA) in West Bend until November 6th, 2016.

4) Applications for Open Engagement’s 2017 conference are due October 31st, 2016 with the theme being JUSTICE. Open Engagement is the largest artist-led conference dedicated to expanding the dialogue around, and creating a site of care for the field of socially engaged art.

5) Guda Koster creates surreal fashion worlds with a combination of sculpture, installation, and photographs (via Hi-Fructose).

6) While silk is popularly known by being made from silkworms, it can also rarely be made by clams. Chiara Vigo is one of the few remaining people in the world who knows how to harvest clam silk, spin it, and turn it into gold-like thread (via BBC).

7) Magnified photos of tapestries from The Getty bring every little detail of the fabric to light: showing the various structures, fibers, and dyes of the warp and weft threads (via The Creators Project).

8) “7 Vanishing Technologies Making a Comeback Through Art” looks at what traditional technologies are still thriving in our digital era (via Artsy).

9) Stacy London reflects on gender norms, style, and aging in “How I Moved on from my ‘What Not to Wear’ Style” (via Refinery29).

10) Happy Friday textile GIF of nonsense!