Silence
Artist: Aleksandra (Sasha) Stoyanov (Ukrainian, born Odessa, born 1957)
Date: 2006
Dimensions:
64 1/2 × 236 1/4 in. (163.8 × 600 cm)
Medium: Wool, sisal, silk, cotton threads
Classification: Textiles and Fiber
Credit Line: Purchased with funds given by Georgia Welles Apollo Society members Joseph V. and Judith M. Conda, Bill and Pam Davis, Louise and Greg Gregory, Ann W. Hartmann, Eileen Kennedy and Robert Heim, Jeffery and Inge Klopping, and Mrs. Philip G. Simonds, with additional support from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 2019.62
Label Text:The colors found in the landscape of northern Israel inspire the woven tapestry work of Aleksandra (Sasha) Stoyanov, who immigrated there in 1990. She finds the muted palette of gray, brown, black, yellow, green, and blue to be far more expressive than brighter alternatives.
Stoyanov is part of an international movement of fiber arts that has flourished in the second half of the 20th century. Her work often incorporates imagery from the home she left behind in Ukraine, taking on a deeply emotional quality that focuses on the social dilemmas experienced by immigrants, the loss of family, and disconnection. In Silence, she creates a space about personal memories as well as the joining of individual experiences to form collective memory. The empty table is replete with remembrances of the past, but also bursting with possibility for future gathering, working, and conversation.
Stoyanov makes her own threads before beginning the weaving process. She washes then cards the wool, spins the yarn on a foot-powered spinning wheel, and, finally, dyes the yarn in large batches to her preferred natural shades.
Stoyanov is part of an international movement of fiber arts that has flourished in the second half of the 20th century. Her work often incorporates imagery from the home she left behind in Ukraine, taking on a deeply emotional quality that focuses on the social dilemmas experienced by immigrants, the loss of family, and disconnection. In Silence, she creates a space about personal memories as well as the joining of individual experiences to form collective memory. The empty table is replete with remembrances of the past, but also bursting with possibility for future gathering, working, and conversation.
Stoyanov makes her own threads before beginning the weaving process. She washes then cards the wool, spins the yarn on a foot-powered spinning wheel, and, finally, dyes the yarn in large batches to her preferred natural shades.
DescriptionWall hung tapestry with horizontal orientation woven in monochromatic hues with single table placed off-center. A tablecloth is draped over the square table. The background is composed of squares of varying colors that mimic light entering the scene from the far left of the image. The various types of thread create a textured surface and give additional quality of three-dimensionality.
Not on view