Siena Smith (MFA 2021)
Using the template of the repeat on a jacquard loom, I represent figures within this repeat. Their image reading over and over again suggest their movement and gesture. The repeat pushes the audience to imagine the subject’s internal dialogue. The audience is then able to empathize with the figures woven. Repetition of the subject across the width of the fabric suggests the passage of time. What is she doing or thinking about during the day? Does her routine repeat everyday? One follows her in that moment and sees her for her. What is her truth?
I place value in drawing and painting as the foundation to release and conceptualize my ideas get all my ideas out. As I draw I being to think about how these marks being made can become wefts being held down by warp. Weaving continues the process of creating the subject I begin to sketch. The values of her skin highlighted with each weave structure. The yarn for her skin and background are different but work together. Her image is repeated as it follows the width of the fabric. Is she in the same position or is she moving? It is just her in the space … thinking, feeling, living. What does it mean to exist? I’m still trying to figure that out.