With Our Wings, 2024

Mary Tsiongas and Jim Roeber (Silk+Sound Lab)

Think of a museum as a cocoon spun by people; that can help gestate new states of being from the stuff of the past.  With this work, we are fortunate to be helping with the spinning of one such cocoon, and have chosen: to honor the flight-hobbled genius Bombyx Mori, that was engineered to share its silk; and the cottage industrialists who often nurtured, spun, and wove this precious thread; but, also, to attend to the wondrous/monstrous machines and factories that mechanized the human process of silk production.

These digital images are printed on archival paper.  The spiral indicates the location of the stitched speaker. These prints will range in size, but most will be less than 24”x 24”; with the size of the speaker being relative to the size of the print.  Please note,  these pieces are meant to be exhibited in a gallery space and they will emit the sound you are hearing here on the stitched speaker.

The work is a result of “Texts as Cultural Treasures”, a one-time residency supported by the US Embassy in Georgia. It is curated by Lydia Matthews, Nino Kuprava, and Mariam Shergelashvili and part of the reopening of the Tbilisi State Silk Museum.  We are so grateful for this opportunity and to have worked with the amazing people at the museum and to be in company of all the wonderful artists, Nino Kvrivishvili, God Era (Nino Goderidze) Mariam Zaldastanishvili, Stacey Steers and John Romano and GE Patterson!