Beryl Korot, “Text and Commentary”, 1977Т 

Т€Т˜Fiber: Sculpture 1960-Т€Т“presentТ€Т™ is the first exhibition in 40 years to examine the development of abstraction and dimensionality in fiber art from the mid-twentieth century through to the present. Adapting age-old techniques and traditional materials, artists working in fiber manipulate gravity, light, color, mass, and transparency to demonstrate the infinite transformations and iterations of their material.Т€Т

Both writing and weaving are tools to store information using lines. On the loom you build a pattern line by line, creating a visual language/narrative. We construct sentences/words on a page in the same way, line by line. But how do we deconstruct these linear ideas of writing and weaving?

The artists in the fiber exhibition are responding and pushing back on to the grids (the loom, the tapestry etc.) rigidity and structure by constructing fiber art that strays farther from the wall to interact with the ceiling, the pedestal, the floor and space itself.

Experimental writing also deals with theories about Т€Т˜the gridТ€ and its limitations. For example, concrete poetry, or shape poetry (poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on) strays away from the page and its structured constraints.

Take a look at the video excerpt of artist Beryl Korot as she discussesТ how information has been encoded in lines and patterns throughout human history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKyrFPljFgТ 

-Emilia Garber