Tactile Histories: Weaving our Archives

In research libraries and collections, we may capture the portrait of history in so-called insignificant visual and verbal textualities and textiles– in material details” writes Susan Howe. In this workshop, Stamps MFA candidate Celia Shaheen will invite participants to explore the tactile qualities of archives, both personal and public, through tapestry weaving. In dialogue with Cosmo Whyte: Under the Quiet, Beyond the Eye, participants will splice and reconfigure photographs from the Ann Arbor District Library Archives with yarns, fabrics, and elements of their own personal and/​or familial archives to create a small woven collage.

This workshop is best suited for ages 12 and up; no weaving experience necessary. Participants are highly encouraged to bring copies of photographs, letters, recipes, and/​or other printed matter that speak to their lived experiences and histories. Note: we will be cutting these elements up before adding them to our weavings.Limited space available; registration required.

More about the artist:

My studio practice oscillates at the intersection of archiving and making, working across the spectrums of fibers, printmaking, papermaking, and metalsmithing. I call upon the shared language of textiles and storytelling to investigate Lebanese culinary traditions, folklores of the animate and inanimate, and webs of lineage and longing. I’m interested in the physical and metaphorical links across these media: as surfaces for storytelling and communicating messages, as image-cum-object, as things portable and quotidian, as substrates, as records, and as objects of relative malleability and porousness. Much of my work is talismanic in nature, and I enjoy imbuing the objects I make with symbols of protection and prosperity, whether that be through pattern, color, or specific motifs pulled from historical textiles and jewelry. Learn more about Celia Shaheen’s work.