Circumstances Held Me To Threads

"Weaving is not just an art form, it is an endurance test. It is a way of grappling with time and memory, pulling the threads together even when the past resists. - Anne Carson

Shoshana Wayne Gallery is pleased to present Circumstances Held Me To Threads, an exhibition featuring works by Terri Friedman, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Anina Major, Frances Trombly, Gil Yefman, and Michelle Yi Martin. On view from May 24th to July 26th, 2025.

Weaving, at its core, is a complex act, demanding not only physical dexterity but also a heightened awareness of the delicate interplay between thought, memory, and material. It is an embodied practice that transcends the mere manipulation of thread; it is a reflection of the artist’s engagement with time, space, and history. As Joan Didion aptly observed, “Weaving is not a simple thing. It’s not just the hand that moves the thread, but the mind that follows it.” Weaving requires a tension between the past and present, where every thread drawn through the loom forms an intricate connection between memory and material, between individual and collective histories.

In Circumstances Held Me To Threads, the artists delve into this profound act of connection, exploring the tactile beauty of fibers as they intertwine to form patterns that mirror the complexity of lived experience. These artists challenge and expand the traditional practice of weaving, drawing upon the metaphorical weight of the process itself. The act of weaving becomes an engagement with both personal and political realms, where materials become vessels of identity, culture, and memory.

Michelle Yi Martin and Frances Trombly push the boundaries of textile and fiber to examine the intricate relationships between the corporeal and the conceptual. Their work emphasizes the physicality of weaving, focusing on the act of binding, pulling, and stretching materials in ways that reveal the fragility and resilience inherent within the fibers themselves. Sabrina Gschwandtner interrogates the historical canon of craft, reframing archival media to explore how weaving and its associated forms have been shaped by gendered perspectives. Her work challenges traditional perceptions, questioning both the aesthetics and politics embedded in the act of making. Terri Friedman considers her fabric works paintings, blurring the line between mediums through vibrant compositions that fuse gesture and texture.

Anina Major’s and Gil Yefman’s works reimagine the act of weaving through the lens of personal and cultural memory, emphasizing hybridity and transformation. These artists draw on diasporic histories, where the very act of weaving becomes a means of negotiating new forms of identity and resilience. Their works underscore weaving as a force that binds not just threads but also histories and individuals, creating new connections between past and present.

In Circumstances Held Me To Threads, weaving is not merely a technical process; it becomes an act of endurance and reflection, of stretching the boundaries between past experiences and contemporary realities. Through this exhibition, the artists invite the viewer to witness how the act of weaving becomes a transformative process, one that is at once fragile and enduring, intimately tied to both the body and the world around us.