I was originally drawn to the Weaving Data exhibit at the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum at PSU because at the time I had really gotten back into working on my personal website on neocities. I was really excited to see how this exhibit would tie something so traditional and artistic like looming and textile arts with something as modern and futuristic as data and coding. This exhibit included a variety of different cultural tapestries and the cultural reasoning behind them. For example, towards the front of the exhibit, there was a small ball made up of entirely leather string and beads. Upon further inspection (aka checking the plaque that went with the artwork), the ball was a long string that ancient indigenous women would use to record events and memories of their life. It was basically a carefully crafted diary.
Anyways, one of the artists featured in this exhibit was April Bey, who had these really interesting afrofuturist works, which I think totally ties in with the themes of afrofuturism that we had spent half of february learning about. For example, one of the artworks (which I cannot find the name of online unfortunately) was a tapestry of 2 Beyonces, specifically Homecoming Beyonce, where they both held signs that said “Rights for Women” Upon looking on her personal website and articles that tell more about April Bey’s story, I learned that April Bey’s tapestries mirror that of an imaginary world named “Atlantica”, which was inspired by the analogies of aliens and humans her father would tell to her as a child (Lawrence 2022). April Bey has another artwork on her personal website that provides a little more context on the tapestry. The artwork features about 3 Beyonce Homecoming heads, one with a suffragette sign, one in a baby carriage, and one standing to the side. The artwork was titled “Atlantican Archives: A Group of Beyonces Founded Earth Feminism.” Additionally, the artwork includes a patch of “african” wax fabric purchased from Bey’s Chinatown.