Sand Scroll

Robin Muller has been making weavings and other art works for galleries and interior designers since 1979. She has worked mostly as a hand weaver, but also making artist’s books, woven images in scroll forms and Jacquard weavings on hand and power looms. Many of the pieces pay homage to traditional crafts persons using industrial and computer technology that is now available to fibre artists. The work draws a comparison between the scroll, used to record narrative in early cultures and the loom, used to record stories in a few preliterate cultures.

Most weaving features the same pattern across the width of the cloth. Jacquard looms can create images and large shapes across the fabric, seen in images on men’s ties or the symmetrical curves on large damask tablecloths. Historically these looms were controlled by punch cards. They were the first computers. Since the 1990’s, these looms interact with Photoshop-like programs to create large photographic images, ideal for architectural settings.

Muller is pursuing ways to make flat textiles into meaningful objects. They have taken several forms: pictorial scrolls/ books and clothing/upholstery. The computer files for these collaged images were made using her own photos. Many of the scrolls pay homage to traditional crafts persons and memorable landscapes. Sand Scrolls departs from the craft theme and shows landscapes of the wind eroded Black Hills of North Dakota interspersed with water patterns on sand at Lawrencetown Beach in Nova Scotia. She combined them for visual (scale/ colour/ texture) reasons rather than conceptual content.