warp and weft is an installative technology-textile fiction. The historical background to the work is provided by the textile market held at today’s Helmhaus in Zurich at the end of the 18th century, where fine cotton fabrics from India, such as mousseline cloths, calico cloths, and India nets, were a much sought-after consumer good. From the second half of the 18th century, these were also produced in increasing quantities in France and England (and then sold again in the colonies), which drove the Indian textile industry to ruin.¹ At the same time, the number of people enslaved on the plantations of the American southern states exploded. warp and weft redesigned cotton-picking bags in the form of rectangular sections with long ribbons on all sides. While the sections are reminiscent of the demarcated, fragmented space of the plantation, the ribbons invite the wearer to make a variety of connections. warp and weft redesigned cotton-picking bags in the form of rectangular sections with long ribbons on all sides. While the sections are reminiscent of the demarcated, fragmented space of the plantation, the ribbons invite the wearer to make a variety of connections. warp and weft redesigned cotton-picking bags in the form of rectangular sections with long ribbons on all sides. While the sections are reminiscent of the demarcated, fragmented space of the plantation, the ribbons invite the wearer to make a variety of connections.

Two icons depicting a salesman and a lung are lasered onto large pieces of woven cotton. The connection between the two icons is provided by Oh my silly, silly, silly mind!, a dialogue between a singing voice and a merchant who wants to vaccinate the singing voice against all but one story. But: The vaccination doesn't work on the Singing Voice! Why not? Because she has a loom in her body. And because the Singing Voice has always collected “other stories” using the components of cotton-picking bags.

The installation was presented at the Helmhaus Zurich in 2017 and at the Aargauer Kunsthaus at Auswahl 18 in 2018.

The dialogue Oh my silly, silly, silly mind! lasered onto cotton was written in English in collaboration with Samrat Banerjee. It appears in the publication Writing the body with the body – Essays, Texts and Performances (Volume B) by Stefanie Knobel.