Handwoven Upholstery Fabric c. 20th century

This handwoven upholstery fabric was made by someone at the Cranbrook Art Museum, and you can see it today at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The colour is really gorgeous, like an old penny, with hints of copper throughout. It's mossy, a little dirty, and definitely earthy. The texture has a lot to do with that feeling, this is not a flat surface, it's very worked. In a way it's a bit like painting, thinking about covering the surface evenly, but then knowing it never will be. The weave is dense and kind of uniform, but with subtle irregularities that catch the light. There is a real contrast between the smoothness of the thread, and the rough energy of the overall piece. You see this kind of all-over-ness in the paintings of Agnes Martin too, where repetition is both the subject and the method. It's about how we attend to the world, through making.