Jessica Mordine Young

Name: Jessica Mordine Young

Studio location: Currently, New York City

Website / social links: jessiemordineyoung.com, @jessiemordine, @jessie_weaves

Loom type or tool preference: My loom is an 8 shaft Gilmore floor loom. I am currently working on a 40” Macomber loom

Years weaving: 9 years, on and off

Fiber inclination: wool, naturally dyed by hand myself

Current favorite weaving book: I own more textile and art books than I do clothes, so this is really tough to answer!  I am very inspired by the book “Taleras: Weavers from the Argentinian Dry Forest” at the moment

My favorite weaving book of all time for theory: For scholarly research: Bauhaus Weaving Theory by T’ai Smith 

 

1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?

I spent a significant part of my childhood living in India. My family relocated to New Delhi, which is where I lived until I was 18. Living on the subcontinent exposed me to a world of traditional textile practices that really formulated my work both as an artist and scholar. I became deeply interested in learning as much as I could about the history of various methods of making. I first visited a weaving community in the village of Kanchipurum when I was fourteen years old, in rural Tamil Nadu. I immediately gravitated toward the medium. From then on, I made it a point to learn about the country’s relationship to weaving in both past and present day.

I started exploring my own weaving practice in high school through tapestry weaving. I then became formally trained when I was in the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

At eighteen, I worked in a factory outside of New Delhi, where I managed production and designed garments and home goods for U.S. and British companies. Through this experience, I learned what forms of production I would want to pursue in my career, which was slower than what I had experienced from being in the world of fast fashion. Though I was enamored by the speed and scale with which things could be made, it did not seem like the career I wanted. A year later I found the floor loom, and have been weaving ever since.

2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?

I consider myself a textile artist, scholar, student and teacher. My research is informed by my weaving and my weaving is informed by my research. I think what matters to me about defining my practice, is that I am engaged in different facets that are all interconnected.

Other people might define my practice otherwise, which can sometimes be frustrating. Not because I personally think lesser of these other titles, I don’t, but because I think there are pre-conceived notions of what weaving might be, which can be limiting.

3. Describe your first experience with weaving.

I started frame loom weaving at seventeen, but my first experience on a floor loom was in Varanasai, India at eighteen. I had been introduced to the process before, but had not physically tried it until this point. During my first go at it, I was on a fly shuttle loom that was built into the ground. I passed the shuttle across the loom and immediately felt the meditative sensation that comes with the repetition.

I later learned how to fully draft patterns and dress looms in Chicago, which is where my practice really began.

4. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?

I like to weave absurdly large quantities of work in very short amounts of time, no one should do that to themselves. Honestly, wish I could be more consistent with my making, but with my practice I go through cycles where I weave a ton, then sit with it for a while, and take my time in the finishing process. I have work that I will have spent 16 hours a day making, and then won’t touch it for a month or two, or ten. I will just look at it. It is very perplexing to me.

While weaving, I work quite intuitively. The weave structures are pre-meditated, but the order of the color is spontaneously decided during the weaving process. I often work with a set range of colors, using mostly natural dyes and upcycled fibers. I try to locally source my materials, as I think it is important to support people in the community.

Right now, the weave structures I use are purposefully simple. This year, I am planning to take even greater risks with structure, color and texture. When I am responding to my environment in my work, certain colors and patterns feel very obvious. But I am ready to work on some new concepts that I have been thinking about for a while now.

5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?

It definitely does. The education I received at SAIC strongly encouraged having a conceptual approach in one’s practice. Though I like to make beautiful things, it is hard to first focus only on aesthetic. Sometimes my concepts are more subtle and nuanced, and I am trying to push myself to make work with a more articulated message.

While my work carries meaning, it is not always obvious. Typically, these works that I call “woven paintings” are personal anecdotes, and therefore the message might be more subtle.

 

6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?

Honestly, I love the entire act of weaving, from the initial planning and set up of the loom to cutting it off and finishing the ends. When I have come to a loom that has already been set up, I don’t find that I have the same gratification when my work is complete.

I am not super religious, but I have grown up surrounded by an almost in-your-face experience with spirituality – in India, it seems like ritual is intrinsic to human existence. Ritual is everywhere. To me, weaving often feels like ritual, perhaps because of the meditative quality that it brings. Or because one is often humbled by the process.

My least favorite would be the back-end stuff that comes with trying to show and sell; photographing, editing photographs, updating the site, etc. This is because it is definitely a process I could feel much more knowledgeable in. But the larger part of this is a confidence issue, in putting my work out there. Because I know after this step, it will be available for others to see and enjoy.

7. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?

I do sell my work, but have not yet reached a point where I can depend on it as my main form of income. When I am not weaving, I work in Arts programing at the Teachers College at Columbia University and am currently at the Bard Graduate Center for textile history.

8. Where do you find inspiration?

I read A LOT about textiles. Techniques, colors, motifs, and patterns become present in my work from this. I have also worked with many textile collections in museums – that too has propelled my projects and processes.

My most recent bodies of work have come from being in very specific landscapes; Iceland, Ireland, upstate New York, Oaxaca.  I am curious how my work will evolve and change as I enter a new urban environment like New York City.

9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?

Aesthetically, my work is currently influenced by Brett Wadden and Christy Matson. Their woven work speaks to me in color and form.

Honestly, you, Rachel of Weaver House Co. have always been a huge inspiration of mine. Even from our time together at SAIC, and shortly thereafter when you went to Peru to work with Awamaki. Seeing your practice evolve there had a really big impact on me. (side note: Jessica, thank you!)

Also, Noelle Sharp of Aporta and Dee Clements of Studio Herron are up there in artists /designers that I really admire. Their work and business models are tied to ethical production and they have really been on the forefront in the resurgence of handloom weaving in western design.

All of these people have pursued their passions and worked so incredibly hard to get there.

10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?

I would probably paint canvases and draw all day. But another dream of mine is opening up an artist residency. This may be ten or fifteen years down the road, but I am always thinking about what it would look like and how I would want to go about setting this up.