The Line and the Loom: Weaving, Poetics, and Artistic Collaboration

Abstract

The connections between text and textile, or poetry and weaving, are ancient, yet remain a powerful conceptual framework for artistic collaboration and reflection.  Wood engraver Richard Wagener, and poet Alan Loney use weaving as a thematic and formal medium for their collaborative fine press book, Loom. The two artists ask: how few threads make a weaving?  Loom focuses on the importance of a line—from threads to text, from the lines of print to those of the burin.  Though both text and image have a spare aesthetic, Wagener's style of incision making and Loney's theories of poetics suggest that weavings are hard to escape.