Co-curators Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya and Renata de Carvalho Gaui traveled to Santa Fe in 2018 to conduct a workshop called Weaving to Code, Coding to Weave for CURRENTS. "We've conducted this class all around the world, but never with a group that had such extensive knowledge of both weaving and coding," says Rodriguez Sawaya. "After the first day, we said, 'How do we teach them something they don't already know?'" They shifted their lesson plan to include examples of radical art projects that reimagine the relationship between textiles and technology.
"That was the first part of our curatorial process," Gaui says. "In the show, we're asking big questions about how weaving and coding can work together to change our perceptions of the world. Can these practices converge to illustrate different identities, keep cultures and history alive, or resist obsolescence?" The curators are selecting work through a hybrid invitational and juried process. The participating artists will be decidedly transdisciplinary. Glowing textiles, robotic looms, and "woven" projections are among the densely textured and fantastically interactive works set to appear in the show.