Abbey Muza

Three Knots (2016)
carpet, woven in wool and cotton
73 x 42 in.

I am interested in the haptic qualities inherent in the materiality of weaving. I am attracted to the sense of pleasure that comes from raw roving and wools. I hand-tie each knot and throw the shuttle across the textile for each line of weaving. Each thread must be handled, controlled, placed in a grid to determine a two or three dimensional structure. Finished pieces have a visual texture and structure that is unique to woven textiles.

A recent project of mine has been to weave carpets based on the interior spaces in Jean Genet’s novel Funeral Rites. These carpets not only realize the fictive physical spaces described in the book, but materialize the mental spaces that are created by the protagonist’s reflections on his lover who has passed, realms that are created when he removes himself from the realities of his surroundings (France during the second world war), and lapses into imagined spaces where his lover lives on.

© Abbey Muza