Artists: Lisa Alberts, Teresa Baker, Kalyn Fay Barnoski, Raphaël Barontini, Akea Brionne, Diedrick Brackens, Melissa Cody, Liz Collins, Cyrah Dardas, Carole Harris, Patrick Dean Hubbell, Josefina Concha E., Geoffrey Edwards, James Benjamin Franklin, Maren Hassinger, Margaret Hull, Basil Kincaid, Tiff Massey, Allie McGhee, Kamau Amu Patton, Esteban Ramón Pérez, Joey Quiñones, Jason REVOK, Eric-Paul Riege, Angélica Serech, Nirbhai (Nep) Singh Sidhu, with Nicholas Galanin, Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, and Ishmael Butler, Gary Tyler, Melissa Webb, Tyrrell Winston, Alisha B. Wormsley and Kite, Billie Zangewa, and Sarah Zapata.

Library Street Collective is pleased to present Warp and Weft: Technologies within Textiles, a group exhibition curated by Allison Glenn, Artistic Director of the Shepherd. The exhibition is a 2-part exhibition series at the Shepherd focusing on the intersecting histories–and current landscapes–of Detroit through the work of artists’ practices.

Part 1: Warp and Weft: Technologies within Textiles is concerned with how artists experiment with new technologies, interrogate materials, and embed innovative, inherited, familial, or ancestral methodologies into their textile and fiber-based practices. With the invention of and subsequent improvements to the Jacquard loom, to the reframing of traditional weaving styles, the incorporation of mechanization, to the Indigenous methodologies held by multigenerational weavers, there is a long history of technologies located within, and born of, deep engagements with textiles.

In the early 19th century, the Jacquard loom was invented as a way to automate textile weaving, which revolutionized the textile industry. Patterns inscribed onto punch cards developed a binary system that enabled the loom to be programmed, directing the design and development of a textile. This binary system was the foundation for the first computer. In the century that followed, computer innovation continued with the creation of the first synthesizers, and the CSIR Mk1, the first computer to play electronic music. In Detroit, this kind of technology and mechanization were foundational to the development of techno, its global explosion, thefounding of labels like Submerge, Minus Records, Planet E, Transmat, and Metroplex, and the subsequent genres and subgenres that followed.

Bringing together a wide spectrum of styles, histories, and approaches, an interest in adornment and material histories anchors many artists’ practices, while excising, collapsing, layering, and otherwise manipulating textiles is a through line. Many artists in Warp and Weft have primarily textile-based practices, while others incorporate textiles and fabrics into largely experimental bodies of work. This range speaks to the materials’ expansiveness. Relationships between humans and technology are explored through experimental projects, and direct connections are made to pedagogy and experimentation in Metro Detroit. There is a strong connection betweencomputers and the sonic, as seen through the global explosion of techno music, and the jacquard loom being the predecessor to the first computer.

Part II: The Sea and the Sky, and You and I, opening on May 17, will present artists who incorporate water, air, earth, terrestrial and digital landscapes into their work. An interpretation of a lyric from “All Blues”, a 1959 jazz composition written by Miles Davis, TheSea and the Sky, and You and I considers the histories embedded within landscapes and the human impact on the environment, highlighting how artists are shaping discourses for the future.

With a strong focus on Detroit, over half of the artists in The Sea and the Sky, and You and I are based in the city, engaging with themes of Drexciya, detritus, land use, and more. Many of those artists are self- organizing public art and community-focused projects that engage with the landscapes of the city.

Programmatic partnerships with community-based, artist-led organizations in Detroit will result in a kaleidoscope of events occurringin tandem with the exhibition at the Shepherd. Similarly, artists included in The Sea and the Sky who are living and working outside of the region are engaging with histories anchored to the locations their work speaks from, including climate, history, and theaforementioned land use.

Warp and Weft: Technologies within Textiles will be on view from January 25 - May 3, 2025 at the Shepherd.

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