Assignment 1 – Echo

Reflection:

This weaving project has not been a easy assignment for me from a lot of aspects (including this writing since I am having a hard time to put all my thoughts together). In this reflection, I will mainly focus on the process of making the 2 weavings as well as my inner struggles and changes through out these three weeks.

Intention& Sample Weaving: When I first started off with the sample, I wanted to completely focus on different techniques and just make a nice-looking piece of weaving that functions as a decoration. As the result, my sample piece is purely an experimentation with the most basic and simple weaving techniques such as vertical lines, horizontal lines, slit, interlocking, and node tying techniques. Yet looking at other people’s works during the weaving sample critique gives me a completely different way of thinking. For example, David’s piece is mostly made out of materials other than the regular yarn provided in the classroom. I am impressed by the way he incorporates different materials (plastics? paper boards? strings? woods? yarns) together which really creates a coherent piece, and at the same time, his work is more interesting in the sense that it is not merely a piece of weaving anymore. Weaving is only the method he used to put everything together. Starting from that point, I began thinking what I should do in my final weaving. Since I am aware of the fact that I usually do not feel responsive to textures and tangible materials, I started searching online and looking at other artists’ works. However, they not only provided me no inspirations, but also limited myself. (meaning that I can only imagine myself doing the exact same piece as theirs). This makes me feel really stressful and uncomfortable, so I decided to go with my feelings and see how it goes. However, this is also something I don’t used to as well.

Final Weaving & Process: I started off the final weaving by looking at what we have left in the classroom, and I chose the colors that seem relatively “quiet” and “peaceful” to me. The top part is very similar to my sample weaving where I was still focusing on weaving techniques and very ordered, tight patterns. Then I decided to push myself out of the comfort zone by adding some patterns that breaks the horizontal flow and adding different textures. For example, I added wool and rope directly into my weaving. I am not sure if they fit well in my piece (since I do not have strong feelings when seeing them), but their colors match my overall flow. As I continued weaving, I began questioning myself : Is this an interesting piece? Is there anything else I could do to make it more attractive? The first thing came to my mind was the wall hanging pocket. I then tried to extract its form from reference photos and incorporate into my piece. Specifically, I abstracted its form by making blocks of loops that give the 3 dimension feeling of the pocket. I originally planned to do 3 rows, yet because of the time limitation, it ends up with only 1 row. The bottom part, where all the decay happens, was intended to corresponds to the rope in the loops which give me the idea of material/texture’s original state, meaning that you can clearly see what each component look like in its original form instead of packing them tightly together as what I did in the top part.

   (color & reference)

(abstraction of the pockets)

 

Learning: I did not pay attention to the edges of my weaving until seeing other people’s works. So next time, the first thing I should remember is to take care of those details since they are also considered as part of the piece. During the final weaving critique, I realized that maker’s intention can be very different from viewers including my own. (a lot of people thought mine is Christmas related, yet I never thought about that at all). I now started to question if leading to many interpretations is a good/ meaningful thing. Do you define a better weaving piece/artwork by having a lot of interpretations or only one interpretation that everyone agrees? In other words, the abstraction of those hanging pockets cannot be understood by viewers, then does that mean that I am not successful enough in making this piece? Nevertheless, looking at other people’s pieces give me the impression that I am still too conservative in the aspect of using different materials and creating a variety of shapes. What I would to differently is that I would consult with other people about some inspirations instead of going straight to my project without any ideas in mind.