Counting Threads

July 29–November 13, 2022

Counting Threads brought together an exceptional group of seventeen contemporary fiber artists and mathematicians whose work explores the often symbiotic relationship between fiber art and math. The link between math and textiles has been observed throughout history, from the 19th century Jacquard loom’s use of binary numbers to the historic exploitation of planar systems in the development of repeat patterns for fabric and carpets. Counting Threads updated this lineage by looking specifically at the way contemporary fiber artists utilize the language of math as a means for artistic exploration.

By organizing this exhibition, the museum sought to understand how artists working today are creatively activating mathematical concepts and making the conventions their own, expressed through fiber art. Principles explored in Counting Threads include geometry, hyperbolic planes, tessellations, symmetry, and diagrams. Working in a variety of media and processes, including quilting, crochet, lacemaking, string art, and video, the artists come from throughout the U.S., Canada, and as far away as Australia. Several of the artists consider themselves foremost mathematicians, who utilize fiber as a method for mathematical inquiry.

Artists in this exhibition included Black Girl MATHgic, Meg Callahan, Anna Chupa, the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Team, Libs Elliott, Audrey Esarey, Jacquie Gering, Caroline Hadley, Veronika Irvine, Chawne Kimber, Thomas Knauer, Ahree Lee, Sarah Nishiura, Michael J. Ross, Daina Taimina, Erick Wolfmeyer, and Carolyn Yackel.

As part of Counting Threads, we were pleased to partner with Chicago artist Sarah Nishiura on the development of a textile-based math program. Recognizing the crossover from STEM to STEAM in WMQFA’s exhibition “Counting Threads,” an exploration of math and contemporary fiber art through the work of seventeen artists, the museum invited Nishiura to serve as WMQFA’s inaugural educational artist-in-residence. Nishiura, whose mathematical drawings were displayed alongside her quilts in the exhibition, was in residence for three incredible days in October, leading workshops with over 200 students that explored concepts related to math and quilt patterning. Over the course of her residency, she went to three area schools—Cedarburg High School, Grafton High School, and Maryland Avenue Montessori—to lecture on her practice as well as how patterning employs rotation, symmetry, and polygons. Each student created nine blocks utilizing origami paper and put those blocks together into quilts with their fellow classmates. The museum then took back one block from each student and created a large-scale collaborative quilt currently on display in the atrium.

Support for Counting Threads was generously provided by the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel, Cedarburg-Grafton Rotary Club, Hilgendorf Memorials: Rock of Ages, and a private donation.