From the artist: I create textile artworks that combine coded systems and the familiar. Daylights was made on a 1960s domestic knitting machine, a tool that is traditionally used for garment making. As I familiarized myself with its inner workings, restoring each rusty piece by rusty piece, I began to see its potential for complex imagery and expansive material. One of the main functions of this knitting machine is ‘knit-in’ or color-work, a type of two-stranded process that allows for an intricacy similar to jacquard weaving. I made a series of binary punchcards that fed through the carousel, with each design made up of a grid of holes. A long row of tiny metal needles lifted and interlooped yarns—coordinated by the programming of the punchcards—with the details of my motifs tessellating as the rows of knit flowed. The pixilated faces of friends, symbols lifted from medieval tapestries, and simplified representations of the fruit I bought at the grocery store filled each panel. Yarns of bright golds, pinks, and blues reminiscent of sunsets alternated to create feelings of optimism and abundance. Daylights aims to honor the fabrics of our everyday life and speaks to a future of interconnection.

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From curator Ellen Ito: “Textile-based art and artwork responsive to social change are gaining prominence across the region and the country. To reflect this confluence, Tacoma Art Museum is proud to present the work of 21 artists in Soft Power, featuring more than 40 textile-based works on view from October 14, 2023, through September 1, 2024.

Soft Power draws its name and inspiration from Joseph Nye’s theory of cultural heritage as a form of non-coercive power. Using traditional processes to create contemporary declarations of resistance, resilience, love, and rebuke, this work explores the dynamic contrast between soft materials and so-called “hard” ideas. This engaging and provocative exhibition explores cultural stereotypes, humanity’s impact on the environment, and healthcare access.

The artists on view express themselves in forms as varied as their ideas: A quilted call to action, meticulously knit abstraction, woven cenotaphs, a stuffed and stitched creature, a scattered gathering of embroidered ephemera.

“The energy created by the collision of material and immaterial elements amplifies the intention of the work. With stitches, purls, and pleats, these artists are creating an urgent and vital material language.”

For more information, please follow this link to the Tacoma Art Museum’s Soft Power. The exhibition was open from October 14, 2023 - September 1, 2024.

all photos are credited to the artist and Pete Fleming