Looming Shelter is a collaborative project with MakervilleStudio and TextileArtsLA.org and other invited artists.
MAKERVILLEStudio is fifteen miles (a 20 minute drive) south of Palm Desert, CA just off State Highway 74. The grounds consist of ten acres of natural pinyon pine-studded desert wilderness and are surrounded on all sides by protected federal land with uninterrupted mountain views.
Textile Artists from Los Angeles met in May of 2018 at Makerville to get a feel of the site and then returned in January 2019 to visualize their work going up on the Super Wood Structure custom built for Looming Shelter.
Despite the cold and wet climate artists installed their work over 2 weeks, often climbing 12 foot ladders. The opening reception took place February 9th and will run until April 21 with specific dates to view the work. You can view the process shots in the slide carousel. I was inspired by the large desert sky scape and cloud formations. Despite our wet winter and El Niño conditions we are still in a drought and I thought of the clouds providing much needed rain. I had to change my initial idea of small organic forms to better relate in scale to the large wood structure. The process of looping is typically not done on such a large scale but I attached the paper core to chickenwire in order to keep the loops intact from the harsh desert winds. I learned a lot in the process and would love to continue with looping onsite again but with amorphous shapes the size of buildings.
Process shots showing initial ideation and progressing to installation of work, Hanging Cloud .
