Kathie Halfin

I  am a New York-based interdisciplinary artist. I was born in Crimea, Ukraine and raised in Israel. Through the slow meditative practice and embodied ritual, my work explores an act of  weaving. With the focus on the physical quality of the cloth and the use of the coded language,  woven pieces reflect my personal perspective and the shared history of my background connecting it to the greater global events. , migratory experience and the larger events such war at the home country, that changes the understanding of reality as such.

 

Material has a coded symbolic value. When coming in touch with the fabric, one's memory evokes the experience of touch and interaction with it.  I relate to both personal memories and the history of the material itself to create the cloth. For instance, copper has a symbolic visual value for me.  It was foraged between Dnipro and Dnister Rivers since the Bronze Age to craft armors, weapons and decorative objects. I reflect upon its qualities such as protection, durability and strength and by its means establish communication with the land.

 

 I also interpret the dots and dashes of the Morse Code to create a coded translation on the fabric. Working with the Morse Code is a form of touching the history and past for me. The code was used by my paternal grandfather in the military during WWII, when he was a pilot in a Soviet army. By working with this obsolete form of communication once used in the war, I reestablish its value and meaning. I am encoding weavings with affirmations and prayers for people translated into a Morse Code woven pattern. 

 

At the same time, I am aspiring towards intuitive surface-making while weaving and dyeing the fabric. I experiment with natural and chemical dyes and use them freely, similar to a watercolor. I use traditional dyes and less traditional ones such as Clorox de-colorant. This liquid eats the color of the fabric along with pigments and dyes and changes the structure of the surface. While coloring and de-coloring the surface I process and visually represent the physical changes and damage caused during the wartime. 

 

I believe that there is a value and potential to be explored in the slow meditative practice of hand-weaving. I am interested in the material made by hand because it keeps the story and the energy of the particular maker. I often utilize the language of obsolete technology such as Morse Code and ancient and traditional materials and techniques. My tactile, abstract surfaces reflect upon the past contexts and contemporary ones. What should be abandoned and what should be preserved? What is the use of the fallen stories and obsolete language? How to resist and care in a slow reflective way?