Kira c. 20th century

This Kira, here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is a textile of unknown date, made with fiber. The process of weaving is so different from painting, but it also relies on this incredible slow accumulation of material and mark. Here we have the horizontal lines that give it this grid-like structure, but it’s disrupted by the detailing in the yellow bands. Look at the little diamonds. It’s this crazy combination of order and chaos. It’s this crazy combination of order and chaos. I love how the process isn’t hidden. You can really see how the maker built this up, thread by thread. And it makes me think of other textile artists, like Anni Albers, who also blurred the line between craft and art, between the functional and the purely aesthetic.