Portrait courtesy of the artist.
Many artists with a strong investment in craft technique are anchored firmly in the past. Jovencio de la Paz is no exception, but he is equally concerned with the distant future. Though well aware of historical trajectories in textiles—he is particularly knowledgeable about ancient Mesoamerican weavings and the work of Bauhaus figures like Anni Albers—he maintains a speculative practice, in which he considers, for instance, the implications of digital incursion into the discipline.
A memorable example of his approach is his series The Harmony of the Spheres, for which de la Paz designed and realized textiles based on descriptions in science fiction novels such as Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Philip K. Dick’s The Last of the Masters. This ingenious transposition of the fictional into the actual allows him to consider questions of pattern making afresh, projecting his own formal imagination and technical repertoire into a speculative condition.
The Harmony of the Spheres: Intergalactic transport shuttle tapestry (After LeGuin, “the Dispossessed”) in handwoven natural and synthetic fibers. Designed and made by Jovencio de la Paz, USA, 2017.
Framed: 22" L x 28" H
55.9cm L x 71.1cm H
FA139
Courtesy of the collection of Ian MacDonald