Zipporah Camille Thompson
Name: Zipporah Camille Thompson
Studio location: Atlanta, GA
Website / social links: zipporahcamille.com, @zipporahcamille
Loom type or tool preference: Ashford & Macomber floor looms
Years weaving: 13
Fiber inclination: dyed cotton, linen, ribbon, wool, metallics, handspun cord, foraged fragments
Current favorite weaving book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?
I embarked upon college with the intention of majoring in painting and drawing, but another concentration captured my heart not too far into my undergraduate studies. I have always been attracted to color and pattern, but it wasn’t until taking an Intro to Textiles class - as a required elective - that I learned about the myriad methods and techniques used in textiles. With my painting background, it felt like a natural progression to begin dyeing fabric. When I first learned to weave in this Intro class, I absolutely hated it. It took me a while to adjust to what seemed like a rigid, limiting process, working within the grid and the confines of the loom.
I was eventually gifted a loom, and I found my voice in weaving while in graduate school studying Textiles. I discovered the fluidity and fascination of weaving after being exposed to weft inlays, varied warps, and sculpting off-loom. My greatest resource has always been artists working in abstraction and contemporary sculpture.
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?
Great question! I consider myself a conceptual artist and sculptor. My identity as a sculptor allows me the freedom to gain inspiration and to create in ways II see fit. I like to break rules, and sometimes I still find craft/textile traditions and recognition to be limiting and exclusive, rather than inclusive. As a conceptual artist, I embrace many techniques, materials, the “high” and the “low”, the norm and the otherworldly, each echoing my conceptual explorations.
3. Describe your first experience with weaving.
My very first experience…WOW! So long ago. My first woven cloth was a traditional white cotton warp with turquoise cotton weft, and SO MANY PATTERNS!! I tried so many things, as many of us do when we are first learning. While I loved that my hands and body had created cloth from thread, I absolutely HATED the counting, the math, the warp winding, and the process of dressing of the loom .... I’m so happy I stuck with it!
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?
My creative process can best be described as fluid and experimental. The initial idea typically occurs as a dream or as an experience. These dreams and experiences are then rendered into form via sketches and material explorations. When weaving, I avoid planning and play up texture and juxtaposition of media as much as possible. I usually stick with plain weave or waffle weave. I also really enjoy inlays, fringe, pile, and tapestry!
5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?
Absolutely. All of my work is an investigation of self, identity, and otherness via hybrid landscapes. I make/give space for bodies in crisis, particularly those of womxn of color. The work is entirely centered around these concepts. There’s so much more to explore and so many more ways I am looking forward to growing and developing the union of the two.
6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?
My favorite part of the weaving process has always been both creating the warp and the unwinding of the woven fabric from the front beam. Creating the warp, while tedious, is an incredibly meditative process that I enjoy getting lost in. The individual threads possess a sense of order and maintaining the right balance of tension is key. I also love how beautiful the threads appear in this stage: individual yet collective, soft but strong - knowing that my hands have prepared each and every one of them. I am also quite drawn to the process of unwinding the fabric from the front beam prior to removing it from the loom. I enjoy observing the moment when the newborn fabric loses tension and transitions into its own being. How does the fabric fold? How does it move as it comes to life and exists on its own?
Perhaps my least favorite part of the weaving process is slaying the reed and tying on the front beam, and I’m not sure why!I think it’s because I’m so anxious and ready to finally weave already!I do find the process of dressing the loom in general, however, meditative and lovely for the most part.
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?
Although I don’t currently make a living from weaving, I plan to create more financially accessible weavings for purchase -- smaller iterations of my larger woven work. Up until now, as evidenced by images of my work, most of my weavings are incorporated into large, conceptual installations created specifically for museum exhibition. I can’t wait to begin a series of smaller framed handwoven “sketches” of color, line, pattern, and texture, utilizing scraps and remnants of larger pieces. Stay tuned!
8. Where do you find inspiration?
Literally EVERYWHERE! Mostly though from my dreams, from nature/landscapes, travels, science, tarot, and psychology.
9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?
There are so many it’s so hard to choose. My shortlist would include: Jeffrey Gibson, Xaviera Simmons, Betye Saar, Deidrick Brackens, Terry Friedman, Ana Mendieta, Nick Cave, and Ramekon O’Arwisters. I’m crazy drawn to works in all media with great emphasis on texture, color, abstraction, with investigations of the landscape and/or body.
10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?
Oh man. I think I’ll always make a way to weave, one way or another. But also I’ve always said that in the next life I would be an archaeologist, botanist, or chemist, so I’m sure you could also find me doing something like that; collecting, observing, experimenting, preserving things in some way.
10. Do you have any upcoming exhibits, talks, or events the community should know about?
Current: Atlanta Biennial: Of Care & Destruction, curated by Jordan Amirkhani
Upcoming: Whitespace Gallery (SOLO) Fall 2021 + Alabama Contemporary (SOLO) Fall 2021
illumined, 2016
azul electrica, 2020
crystal vortex, 2019
the mothership, 2018
vasos, 2020
acid rain, 2019
photo credit, patrick heagney
