SANTA FE — I’m standing in a low-lit gallery, trying right into a floor-to-ceiling glass case displaying three textiles: one, a horizontal subject of black and white parallelograms; one other, an expansion of vertical brown, purple, and beige zigzagging traces that type a scalloped edge on both facet; the third composed of huge horizontal bands of vertical zigzags, this time black and beige, together with narrower purple bands punctuated by a collection of diamond shapes outlined in black. The visible vibrations and patterns really feel fully of the earth and the human hand. Every of those works — one tapestry and two blankets — seems timeless, however in actual fact they have been created in two totally different centuries.
The works are a part of Horizons: Weaving Between the Traces with Diné Textiles on the Museum of Indian Arts and Tradition (MIAC). To arrange the exhibition of over 30 textiles, pictures, and associated gadgets (e.g., dye samples, yarn swatches, digital media), co-curators Hadley Jensen and Rapheal Begay (Diné) collaborated with a Diné advisory committee; the same method was used for Grounded in Clay on the MIAC final yr.
Set up view of Horizons: Weaving Between the Traces with Diné Textiles on the Museum of Indian Arts and Tradition, Santa Fe (picture Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic)
Making my method via the exhibition, I discovered that what I noticed as a scalloped edge is named a wedge weave, an unusual fashion used for a brief interval within the nineteenth century, this one created as a blanket circa 1895 by a Diné artist as soon as recognized. Fiber artist and weaver Kevin Aspaas, together with different advisory committee members, generously gives invaluable perception like this printed on info panels. He incorporates the identical fashion at this time in his personal spectacular weavings, a few of that are on view in Horizons.
Elsewhere within the gallery, I used to be drawn to Tyrrell Tapaha’s expressive pictorial works, corresponding to “Chaos at Four Kornerz” (2024) put in close to a carrying blanket with spider design (1860–80), once more by a Diné artist as soon as recognized. I additionally hung out studying the visible tales woven right into a pictorial blanket (c. 1885) positioned on the exhibition’s entrance. The blanket’s scale, element, and depiction of a prepare, figures, vegetation, animals, and geometric designs held my consideration so intensely that I didn’t discover the digital pill put in close by that gives a recorded over-the-shoulder view as advisory committee members describe what they acknowledge within the piece.
Set up view of labor by artist as soon as recognized (Diné) and Rapheal Begay (Diné) in Horizons: Weaving Between the Traces with Diné Textiles on the Museum of Indian Arts and Tradition, Santa Fe (picture Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic)
The blanket is suspended from the ceiling and hovers in entrance of a colour picture mural, an enlargement of Begay’s “Navel (Hunter’s Point, Arizona)” (2017), portraying a home with sheep in a corral on the foot of a mountain. Begay’s pictures act as backdrops all through the present, including ambiance however detracting from their deserves as artworks in their very own proper, which they’re; Begay is a photographer primarily based in Arizona. Equally, via her digital collages depicting Southwest landscapes, Darby Raymond-Overstreet “aims to reclaim the visual language described by Diné weaving tradition.” The patterns overlaid on her pictures mirror these in a number of of the textiles on view. Had I encountered both of those artist’s pictures in an exhibition of their very own, I may’ve imagined their connection to weaving due to the imagery itself. Seeing them in such shut proximity to the textiles shortly flattened any curiosities I could have had.
On the one hand, the pairings and proximities in Horizons helped contextualize chosen textiles, the makers’ experiences, and the present normally. Alternatively, the supplies created the impression that viewers is not going to (or can’t) make connections between weavers and their tales, wool and sheep, weavings, and the land via the data provided by the works themselves — even when restricted or culturally particular. Maybe my impressions and biases level to inherent challenges in an exhibition of historic and up to date works inside an anthropological establishment corresponding to MIAC; the committee alludes to such of their description of the present as one which “strives to advance new interpretive frameworks that specifically work with, and towards, decolonial and community-oriented methodologies.” Horizons does certainly make use of a mannequin that leverages a collective perspective, however it made for a slightly crowded viewing expertise.
Kevin Aspaas (Diné), “Untitled” (2022), wedge weave, wool yarn (together with wool warp), indigo dye, pure (undyed) white and grey wool, 42 x 32 inches (106.68 x 81.28 cm) (picture Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic)
Set up view of the work of artist as soon as recognized (Diné) (left) and Tyrrell Tapaha (Diné) (proper) in Horizons: Weaving Between the Traces with Diné Textiles on the Museum of Indian Arts and Tradition, Santa Fe (picture Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic)
Darby Raymond-Overstreet (Diné), “Woven Landscape: Canyon de Chelly” (2023), combined media: Digital collage of scanned Navajo textiles and pictures, 36 x 24 inches (81.28 x 60.96 cm) (picture courtesy the artist)
Left: Artist as soon as recognized (Diné), “Rug” (1880–7), cotton string, Germantown wool yarn, raveled yarn, 74 1/4 x 52 inches (~188.6 x 132.08 cm); proper: Evelyn Yazzie (Diné), “Pictorial Weaving” (c. 1989), wool, cotton, pure dyes, 54 x 92 1/2 inches (137.16 x 234.95 cm) (picture Nancy Zastudil/Hyperallergic)
Horizons: Weaving Between the Traces with Diné Textiles continues on the Museum of Indian Arts and Tradition (710 Camino Lejo, Santa Fe, New Mexico) via February 2, 2025. The exhibition was curated by Dr. Hadley Jensen and Rapheal Begay in collaboration with Lynda Teller Pete, Kevin Aspaas, Larissa Nez, Tyrrell Tapaha, and Darby Raymond-Overstreet.