Loomshuttles / Warpaths

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Starting in 2010, the long term and ongoing artistic research project, Loomshuttles / Warpaths sheds light on the highly complex and asymmetrical relationships between Europe and Latin America through the medium of Andean textiles. It knots connections with wider global geographies, past and present, to reveal a world formed by histories of power, disrespect and exploitation, but also by a multitude of resistances. In doing so, we redress the structurally undervalued quality of the feminine and the work of women. Textiles that crossed the world long before today’s globalization can also tell tales of the multiple forms and consequences of colonialist policies and how they seep into the present. Our view depends on an overall sense of the many dynamics, distorted and otherwise, that have shaped both the production and consumption of textiles.

Andean societies, without written languages at the time of the Spanish invasion, can be characterized by their passion for mathematics and weaving, for administration and music, the exact and the ecstatic. A unique textile tradition developed over millennia which continues to shape all levels of life. Starting from a collection of such textiles, Loomshuttles / Warpaths aims to portray connections and correlations, and to uncover past and contemporary histories, refusing well-trodden narratives.

This website is continually updated.