October 9
Jess Jones, Associate Professor Textiles, Georgia State University
Students in Three-Dimensional Thinking were treated to a guided weaving project with Jess Jones on Wednesday afternoon.
Jess presented John Portman’s use of luminance as a repeating and dominant design element in his architectural forms. She began the workshop by mounting images of Portman’s buildings on the wall, and told us about the importance of Atlanta as a nexus of weaving and textiles in the 1960s. John Portman was very interested in materiality–especially in weaving–and commissioned large scale work to hang in his buildings. Jess and her colleague Susan Richmond are collaborators on a project that archives these works named Lost Weavings: Mapping Works, Remnants and Removals. We look forward to hearing more about this project in the programming that will be part of our spring 2025 exhibition, Building on Dana.
The students cut strips of paper to use as material in the ancient art of “tabby” weaving, a simple over and under weaving structure created by alternating strips for the warp (vertical bands) and the woof (horizontal bands) to explore emerging patterns. With concentration and care, the students produced remarkable designs that Jess hung next to the architecture. The variations and similarities in materials, method and scale are revelatory.
While Jess proclaimed that “Weaving is inherently dimensional”, she presented a teaser for our next project that will shape the weavings into dramatic form, using various techniques commonly used in basketry and textile work. As she spoke she was effusive about pleats. “Nothing expresses line like a pleat,” she told me.
