White Dwarf
2016
- Medium
- Silk, moriche palm fiber, alpaca, metalized synthetic film wrapped thread (gold and silver), and metalized synthetic film strip (silver); plain weave, multi-layer cloth
- Dimensions
- 184.2 × 125.1 cm (72 1/2 × 49 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- Weaving
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
silk (fiber)indigoArts of the AmericascontemporaryTextileweavinggeometric motiflatin americanplain weavingfilm (material)
About
White Dwarf uses four types of thread: smooth silk, rough palm fiber, shiny metal thread, and matte alpaca wool. Collaborators María Dávila and Eduardo Portillo deftly combined these raw materials to create a multilayered weaving in which each material symbolizes a different aspect of the artists’ experiences studying textile-making. A white dwarf star is an extremely dense star that burns white-hot as it collapses on itself. The weaving belongs to a series of works that Dávila and Portillo call an “imagined cosmos,” which also includes meditations on the seasons and times of the day.