Ebru Kurbak: Reinventing the Spindle

Artist(s):

• Ebru Kurbak

Title:

Reinventing the Spindle

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 2023: Time Capsules: Discovering the Undiscovered

Category:

• Installation

Artist Statement:

Reinventing the Spindle is a LACMA Art + Technology Grant project, which explores textile-making in microgravity. The project tackles the politics of near-space exploration, questioning whose curiosity has been satisfied and whose knowledge has been marginalized. Inspired by the fact that flax (Linum usitatissimum) was one of the first plants grown in space back in 1971, the artist conducted experiments fifty years later with hand-spinning flax fibers in weightlessness, building on knowledge derived from women’s, indigenous, and nomadic cultures. The installation features the first piece of yarn hand-spun in microgravity and a video re-enactment, highlighting weightlessness as a global commodity and commons.