Perpetual Insufficiency

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Huw Messie

2024

Textile

13.5cm hoop-framed artwork

Description

Computers and textiles share a common ancestry in the form of early programmable looms. Today digital art and fiber art are on mostly separate paths. But they reconverge in the computational embroidery work of Huw Messie.

The artist uses Processing, a program designed for making generative art, to turn video frames into patterns for embroidery machines. He then stitches photos of the resulting textiles back into animated videos. Some examples are abstract, machine-like processes, while Perpetual Insufficiency depicts a human figure climbing up and over a large rectangular form. The work can be seen online as a short video, or as a series of hoop-framed, machine-embroidered pieces featuring purple thread on a ground of goldenrod polyester.