woven identities – a woven portrait series

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P R O J E C T

Y E A R

2020

description

The focus of the work woven identities is a series of woven portraits of my social environment. Photos were digitally converted into stripes, creating a kind of individual barcode for the person which was then transferred to the loom. For this project 22 photos were edited and 12 carpets were woven using almost 230 meters of self-dyed wool.

aim

The aim of the project was to honor my social circle, to take the time to create a version of their most important visual feature, the face. I criticize the fast pace of our society and decided to slow down and find stress relief in a manual project.

At first glance, reducing the face to simple stripes has an anonymizing effect, but at second glance,

individual facial features of the person are still recognizable.

second media

The potential behind the idea unfolds as soon as one perceives the many possible applications

as a design element for various media.

self-dyed wool

Colouring process with natural ingredients such as tea, coffee, onion peel, vegetables & fruits, ...

some portrait-code and carpet comparisons

It's still possible to recognize the specific person due to individual facial features.

For example more obvious features like hair/eye colour, but also the forehead-hight, fullness of lips,

shape of nose (very light stripe --> pointy nose), wrinkles (many thin dark stripes), ...

thesis

The thesis is a hand-bound book with an open back.

The Bachelor thesis featured not only the codes, carpets and process, but also took a look at the technique of weaving,

weaving and carpet history, textile colours and textiles in modern art, portrait photography and the importance of the human face as tool to communicate with mimics and to recognize each other.