shelley socolofsky
hand woven tapestry
tapestry is an ancient form of story telling that consists of the building of a narrative line by line with thread. images are fabricated within the structure of the cloth on a framed support. due to the nature of the weave, the cloth is extremely dense. it is also the most labor intensive of all woven structures.
in this era of post-craftsmanship - when skill is called into question; when images can be produced on the surface of cloth much more quickly via printing methods or woven within the cloth using industrialized looms, the practice of weaving tapestry is curious.
the absurdity of such a practice - along with its associations with handiwork and the pastoral - make it a good vehicle for my examination into usefulness, productivity, value, luxury & excess, and labor.
