Off the Loom: Experimental Community Weaving Project

What is needed to create a loom? For this experimental cooperative weaving project, participants will challenge the traditional process of weaving by working together to create one large tapestry weaving using scrap materials, bringing together pieces of each person’s life into one community art piece. Warp threads will be strung across the workspace to create a framework for the project, and participants will be shown how to cut scrap fabric into strips of weft and weave them into the warp, resulting in an installation that responds to space that it is created in and the people that worked on it. The final result will depend entirely on what materials participants choose, how they decide to interweave them and how they collaborate with each other.

*People are invited to bring clothing and any type of fabric they would like to add to the collective weave. 

*This is a participatory activity, which will result in an immersive installation. Participants will not be taking a final product with them. 

ARTIST BIO:

Maris Van Vlack is an interdisciplinary artist from Massachusetts who combines digital and traditional weaving practices with painting to build tapestries that explore memory and history. Growing up in New England surrounded by remnants of stone textile mills inspired her to explore the connections between architecture and textiles, and how the ruins of a building tell a story about a landscape. Studying Textiles and Drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design taught her to think of a thread as a drawing material that can be used to create pictorial spaces. She has exhibited in the USA and Europe, including shows at the U. S. Capitol Building (Washington, DC), NADA New York (New York, NY), the RISD Museum (Providence, RI), the Icelandic Textile Center (Blönduós, Iceland), and FOG Art Fair (San Francisco, CA). She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center’s 2024 VSA Emerging Artist Award, the St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and the RISD Textile Department Award for Innovation in the Textiles Field. Her work has been published by the Boston Globe, Interior Design Magazine, Google Arts & Culture, Dwell Magazine, Miami Living Weekly, and Warp + Weft Magazine.

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