In the exhibition “Interweavings,” Maria Minkova uses algorithmically generated news items to translate global events into a series of woven mixed-media works. The space of the gallery represents a full week, with a single large-format weaving standing in for each of the seven days. Within the black frames, bright-colored yarn intertwines with disparate materials: film tape, metal chains, even human hair. To produce the series, Minkova first “fed” herself a number of headlines based on a script coded in Python. Then the artist took these real-world events, transmitted through digital media platforms and selected by code, and reintroduced them into the physical sphere in the form of symbolic collages. Unlike Penelope, who wove to obscure the passage of time, Minkova weaves to demarcate it.
By styling herself as a kind of “weaving-robot,” Minkova may relinquish control of her subject matter to an algorithm, but the aesthetic execution of the works remains thoroughly her own. In 10.04.22 (all works 2022)—whose headlines tracked Boris Johnson’s visit to Kiev, Maryland’s expansion of abortion access, and a murder in Texas—large transparent blue strips dominate the frame at a diagonal. One jaunty yellow loop hangs in the upper right corner, while others fill out the bottom rows. In 09.04.22—Idaho’s supreme court blocks an abortion restriction law, global food price rise, Will Smith responds to the Oscars ban— alternating shimmering gold bands and rows of mirrorlike material are topped with a bronze oval tightly constructed from celluloid strips. The composition suggests a brown head and a gilded body separated at the neck by a thin yellow-and-blue line. It seems the war in Ukraine is present even when it’s not the visual emphasis.
