Distortion and imagination

An Interaction of Light and Color In The Act of Weaving

A virtual weaving studio connecting Aarhus and San Francisco exclusively by digital tools and human imagination.

Fiber artists Michelle Yi (US) and Astrid Skibsted (DK) have translated their collaboration into an improvised installation of textiles, color, movement, and light. A hybrid weaving style, Light and Distortion weavings, emerged in the process. They are curious about the distorted aesthetics of the digital realm and the hidden wisdom of the handwoven.

“What counts is vision-seeing ‘schauen’ - seeing with fantasy and with the imagination.”

- Josef Albers, Interaction of Color

Multi layers installation woven textiles exploring the handwoven with digital tools

Installation

Dimensions: 14 textiles. Hand woven and digital print. By Astrid Skibsted and Michelle Yi.

3 x 4 meter installation.

Materials: Various natural, metallic and synthetic fibers

Exhibition Design and Photos: Tableau

Curation: Anne Thomasen

virtual weaving studio

A virtual weaving studio explored between San Francisco and Aarhus will convert into an installation of textiles, color and light for the 2023 Biannual of Craft and Design in Copenhagen. The project is a collaboration between weaver Michelle Yi Martin (US) and Astrid Skibsted (DK).

Biannual for Craft and Design 2023

Theme: Conversion

Copenhagen Contemporary,

oktober-november 2023

Nominated for the Biannual prize:

Astrid Skibsted and Michelle Yi Martin have worked together at a distance, one in Aarhus, the other in San Francisco. The work is created digitally and builds on the shared history of the loom and the computer. Together Skibsted and Martin have created a hybrid glitchy weaving style. Here, it is not only threads that are linked together, but also thoughts and ideas across the Atlantic.

The work lives both in the physical and digital exhibition space. In both spaces the work has a unique character, individual stills in the physical work come to life and live in the movement online. The many patterns are the same across, but get new expressions via the screen's luminous pixels and the physical space, where the natural light points to more volatile, transparent elements in the physical threads.

Motivation text by Majken Overgaard, member of the biaunnal jury