Bhakti Ziek: A Tenuous Thread
Words by Jordan Eddy
“Weaving is always slow compared to most methods of making,” Bhakti Ziek recently wrote to me.
For example, when she hand-weaves a brocade structure, Ziek can complete about one quarter-inch passage per hour at most. Look around this retrospective, representing over 50 years of Ziek’s fiber practice, and consider the patient math of her monumental endeavour. A Tenuous Thread captures the dynamic between Ziek’s voracious artistic intellect and humanity’s most intricate and painstaking sculptural discipline. The exhibition also charts the technological leaps that brought Ziek into prolific harmony with her practice.
Image and image above: Bhakti Ziek, A Wheel of Life: the passing on of knowledge, 1989. Painted warp; braided and resist-dyed weft; lampas weave, double-sided weaving.
Now a septuagenarian living in Santa Fe, Ziek has traveled the world seeking craft knowledge and artistic inspiration. Her path begins in New York City, where she was born in 1946 and first studied weaving at the Craft Students League. It winds through Mexico, Guatemala, Kansas, Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science (PCT&S), Chicago, Arizona, India, Italy, Vermont, and beyond.
Installation view of Bhakti Ziek: A Tenuous Thread, form & concept. Image courtesy of Marylene Mey and Byron Flesher....................
“Weaving is always slow compared to most methods of making,” Bhakti Ziek recently wrote to me.
For example, when she hand-weaves a brocade structure, Ziek can complete about one quarter-inch passage per hour at most. Look around this retrospective, representing over 50 years of Ziek’s fiber practice, and consider the patient math of her monumental endeavour. A Tenuous Thread captures the dynamic between Ziek’s voracious artistic intellect and humanity’s most intricate and painstaking sculptural discipline. The exhibition also charts the technological leaps that brought Ziek into prolific harmony with her practice.
Now a septuagenarian living in Santa Fe, Ziek has traveled the world seeking craft knowledge and artistic inspiration. Her path begins in New York City, where she was born in 1946 and first studied weaving at the Craft Students League. It winds through Mexico, Guatemala, Kansas, Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science (PCT&S), Chicago, Arizona, India, Italy, Vermont, and beyond.
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