
2011
In Deep Brain Stimulation, artist Melissa Cody creates the illusion of three-dimensionality in a two-dimensional textile. In the late 1800s, Navajo weavers raveled yarn from colorful Germantown, Pennsylvania, wool blankets and created eye-dazzling designs bursting with color. Their innovative optical effects, as well as the new technologies of the Digital Age, continue to inspire Cody’s work. The designs were inspired in part by the deep brain stimulation undergone by Cody’s father to help with his Parkinson’s disease, treatments intended to create new, radiating neural pathways. Cody’s imagery likewise creates new pathways and designs for Navajo weaving.