Siyao Wang Weaving

Final weaving

Intention:

When I was thinking about topics for the final weaving, I decided to weave something that showed my concern for environmental issues and consumption because these are things I care about. Speaking of the impact of human activities on the environment and nature, the first image that came to my mind was a huge mouth greedily consuming natural resources while spitting out trash and garbage contaminating land and sea. Though people have been paying more attention to environmental issues, it is still not a matter of great significance compared to politics and economics. These thoughts led me to create my final piece where most elements each had its meaning. The mouth at the center has a “fork bouquet” stuck in it where a plastic fork is tied together with an oak twig by the band originally wrapped around a plastic bottle, suggesting that humans are constantly consuming natural resources while suffocating nature with plastic wastes. The mouth rests upon two color blocks of green and blue, a representation of Earth; the fish made of plastic material trapped in the blue “ocean” is another indicator of the plastic pollution issue. Besides the mouth, there is a piece of newspaper featuring an environment-related news on the bottom and a political news on the top, indicating the current priority of other issues over natural concerns. While most of the other color blocks are kind of random (you may think of the white block as the “white pollution”), the pink block near the top left corner is supposed to be an abstract representation of the nose, and the black-and-white Ghiordes knots are eyelashes of a closed eye.

 

Process:

Most of the materials I used were regular yarns. A different material I used for the mouth was that second kind of red material with a snake skin-like pattern (I don’t its name). I used it because it would add to the three-dimensionality of the mouth and enhanced the contrast. My decision of making vertical lines for the mouth was also due to similar concerns. The leno net in the mouth is made to resemble teeth and also to hold the fork. While most other parts are just plain weaving, the ocean is made of Ghiordes knots to represent waves. The eyelashes are also Ghiordes knots because they look like real eyelashes. As mentioned before, the used of other materials such as the newspaper and the plastics are meant to convey certain meanings. Finally, what looks like an unfinished ending was left like it was to express a feeling of decay and destruction.

 

Learning:

I learned to incorporate different materials in my piece and to use them to convey my ideas and concerns. I also designed and employed new techniques I didn’t use in the sample weaving, such as the vertical lines and lenos, and I felt that I’ve made improvements in my skills. I appreciate other’s critique and their understanding of my ideas. However, due to a lack of time and skills, this piece is not a perfect representation of my original design. Next time I’ll come up with a more general idea instead of a complicated design so that I can have more flexibility; a more abstract representation may also be more interesting as people tend to have different interpretations towards abstract work.  Besides, I may want to try something more three-dimensional including structural support and metals in my next weaving.

Sample weaving