A point and a line, makes a curve, then a circle

The Project

The Soft Walls Collective is presenting a 12-hour collaborative weaving performance, involving weavers responding to shared choreography, tension, and sound. The weavers and their backstrap looms will be equipped with contact microphones amplified in real time, creating an immersive sonic tapestry. Backstrap looms rely on tension between two points - usually the weaver and a stationary anchor point. In ‘A point and a line, makes a curve, then a circle’, weavers will occupy both ends of the warp, leaning away from each other to create the tension required to weave. Beginning at a distance, bodies in various configurations weave while continually adjusting in relation to the cloth. As they undulate closer and farther from one another, they conceal and reveal their cloth in progress. Their motions oscillate between narrowing and expanding the space between one another. As the actions of the weavers get amplified in surround sound, visitors will be able to embody the rhythm of weaving, and feel connected to each of the threads that make up the cloth. The textiles are made using light-reflective yarn, allowing threads and motions to ‘glow’ in the dark of the night.

The Artist

• Soft Walls Collective, Toronto, Canada

Soft Walls Collective is made up of Anita Cazzola, Emma Worley, and denirée isabel. These three artists were brought together through conversations around collective labour and relational textile construction. Driven by their shared curiosity about the relations between bodies, cloth, and space, they gather together to generate extended techniques within the weaving process, altering implements and approaches in unconventional ways.

• Website

Acknowledgements

• Exhibition Sponsor