Introduction
Installation photograph of Binary Visions: 19th-Century Woven Coverlets from the Collection of Historic Huguenot Street.
Historic Huguenot Street presents Binary Visions: 19th Century Woven Coverlets, highlighting a sampling of the dozens of such textiles in the Permanent Collection all of which were produced locally in Ulster, Dutchess, and Orange county. This online exhibit draws on the collaborative exhibition presented at the Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz, January 26 — March 18, 2011, as well as online exhibit previously hosted on HRVH.
Through their actual woven patterns (symbols and texts) and through related records and tools, these coverlets carry clear connections to the local families that purchased and used them.
The word “binary” refers to the two threading directions on the loom and to the basic over-and-under manipulation of these threads by the weaver. Binary also refers to the fundamental structure of the digital technologies that enable and channel so much of today’s visual communication and creativity.
Scholars examine design motifs, photographs, personal and business documents, and public records in an ongoing effort to track shifts in textile production from the individual working in a front room to the small group working in a house or a small factory. This exhibition outlines a two-century-old story of industry and invention, patterning and appropriation, and collaboration and entrepreneurship. It is intended to prompt reflection on, and further research into, these subjects.
Installation Photograph of Binary Visions exhibition at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz.