This practice-based research investigates how weaving can function as an embodied language and as a resistance to what I call normative legibility, defined as the demand that experiences of marginalized bodies should be translated into universal narratives. Departing from lived experiences of transness and being othered, I examine how artistic research can produce knowledge that does not require this translation. I position weaving as a material extension of writing-with-the-body, and develop the concept of embodied failure defined as meaning-making through material resistance and bodily limitations. My practice is grounded in the dialogue between text/textile and body. Expanding on theorists such as Mara Lee, Audrey Lorde and Cathrine Dormor, I explore how temporality can be materialised in the loom. Weaving is a mode of meaning-making that emerges through the body, time and material inscription rather than through explanatory language. In doing so, weaving can open up a poetic ambiguous space for trans narratives beyond binary readings of identity, politics and art. Unlike written text, woven structures cannot fully erase revision; error and interruption become constitutive elements of meaning. The outcome of this project is a series of woven silk objects installed spatially to activate a non-linear and partly distorted reading. By foregrounding embodied temporality and material syntax, the project proposes weaving as a model for understanding knowledge as situated, relational, and resistant to normative demands of clarity. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on humanity, intelligence, and alternative epistemologies within contemporary artistic research.

Authors:
Morris Åkermalm Edberg, Konstfack University, Sweden

About the Presenter(s)
Morris Akermalm Edberg This practice-based research investigates how weaving can function as an embodied language and as a resistance to what I call normative legibility, defined as the demand that experiences of marginalized bodies should be transla

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

Bookmark