This tapestry is my depiction of the Artemis II mission as a traditional US American colonial coverlet. In each corner, four diamonds (astronauts) surround a circle (the moon). Semi-circles (earthrise) make up the borders, and the dark circles (the moon's dark side) in the center are repeated in a 9 by 9 grid (nine days in space).
By designing artemis ii in the style of a traditional coverlet, I wanted to make it explicit that our colonial history - and the immense harm therein - is intrinsically woven with our modern success. The weave structure (our history & our ongoing harm) is the foundation that makes the design (our successes) possible.
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This project started as an obsession with finding the origin of a popular late-1800's coverlet draft named Lee's Surrender. Given its name and its age, I really wanted to know more about who designed it and why. The assumption is that it's named for the surrender of confederate general robert e. lee, but is the name celebratory or mournful? If I make this, would I be displaying a confederate dogwhistle in my home? Etc, etc.
After lots of searching and no well-sourced answers, the final nail in my research coffin was Eliza Calvert Hall's 1912 "A Book of Handwoven Coverlets." She lists, for an entire page, the questions that plague her about coverlet names. And among them:
If we've been asking this same question for over a century, then it might not be possible to know. The knowledge is likely lost to time.
However, in my research, I found one theory I thought was interesting - that Lee's Surrender wasn't named as a manner of opinion, but rather as an impartial description. Many coverlets from this era are named after what they depict. The squares in the center might be soldiers lined up in formation, walled in by the surrounding borders; the corners, explosions from muskets or cannons.
Even if that's true, even if somehow its creator named it with complete indifference (which I doubt), it is still an act of creation and therefore still has inherent political meaning.
And as I thought about all this, I also watched live as astronauts approached the moon. I listened with intense interest as they described the greens and browns visible on the surface. I waited in horror for the nuclear destruction promised by my government back on Earth. I held my breath during reentry. Finally, the US military airlifted the astronauts from their capsule to safety. The same US military murdered thousands of Iranians in air strikes that same week.
artemis ii is a modified version of Snowballs (A Handweaver's Pattern Book by M. P. Davison, p. 181). I hope I've done enough to justify giving this version its own name.
It simultaneously represents my celebration of our scientific achievements - of the good that comes from space exploration, and my condemnation of the violent legacy needed to get here.
If, 100 years from now, someone finds themselves asking if artemis ii was named in sorrow or in triumph, here is the answer:
This tapestry is my depiction of the Artemis II mission as a traditional US American colonial coverlet. In each corner, four diamonds (astronauts) surround a circle (the moon). Semi-circles (earthrise) make up the borders, and the dark circles (the moon's dark side) in the center are repeated in a 9 by 9 grid (nine days in space).
By designing artemis ii in the style of a traditional coverlet, I wanted to make it explicit that our colonial history - and the immense harm therein - is intrinsically woven with our modern success. The weave structure (our history & our ongoing harm) is the foundation that makes the design (our successes) possible.
-- read more --
This project started as an obsession with finding the origin of a popular late-1800's coverlet draft named Lee's Surrender. Given its name and its age, I really wanted to know more about who designed it and why. The assumption is that it's named for the surrender of confederate general robert e. lee, but is the name celebratory or mournful? If I make this, would I be displaying a confederate dogwhistle in my home? Etc, etc.
After lots of searching and no well-sourced answers, the final nail in my research coffin was Eliza Calvert Hall's 1912 "A Book of Handwoven Coverlets." She lists, for an entire page, the questions that plague her about coverlet names. And among them:
If we've been asking this same question for over a century, then it might not be possible to know. The knowledge is likely lost to time.
However, in my research, I found one theory I thought was interesting - that Lee's Surrender wasn't named as a manner of opinion, but rather as an impartial description. Many coverlets from this era are named after what they depict. The squares in the center might be soldiers lined up in formation, walled in by the surrounding borders; the corners, explosions from muskets or cannons.
Even if that's true, even if somehow its creator named it with complete indifference (which I doubt), it is still an act of creation and therefore still has inherent political meaning.
And as I thought about all this, I also watched live as astronauts approached the moon. I listened with intense interest as they described the greens and browns visible on the surface. I waited in horror for the nuclear destruction promised by my government back on Earth. I held my breath during reentry. Finally, the US military airlifted the astronauts from their capsule to safety. The same US military murdered thousands of Iranians in air strikes that same week.
artemis ii is a modified version of Snowballs (A Handweaver's Pattern Book by M. P. Davison, p. 181). I hope I've done enough to justify giving this version its own name.
It simultaneously represents my celebration of our scientific achievements - of the good that comes from space exploration, and my condemnation of the violent legacy needed to get here.
If, 100 years from now, someone finds themselves asking if artemis ii was named in sorrow or in triumph, here is the answer:
also I need everyone to know that I made this out of leftover scrap yarn. don’t do this. it is roughly 80 picks per inch and I had to pause every 2-3 picks to attach new yarn. and then weave in thousands of ends to make it reversible. learn from my mistakes.
'microscopic photos of transistors + integrated circuits produced at fairchild semiconductor between 1959 + 1979' in the computer: a history from the 17th century to today - jens müller + julius wiedemann (2023)
My name is Jakob, I’m here in my multi million dollar home with my husband, he’s also named Jakob. I’m training him like a bisexual guard dog to salivate at the command phrase “we should stop by Trader Joe’s” because he knows I’ll let him do anything to my body if he remembers to get the ghee that I purposely left off the list to test him. And you’re watching HGTV.
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