Listen to reflections by artists and scholars as you tour BGC’s spring exhibitions. Hear from fiber artist and weaver Tyrrell Tapaha in the second floor galleries of Shaped by the Loom. Master folding artist Joan Sallas, who prepared the breathtaking napkin folds in Staging the Table, also recorded reflections to accompany many of the objects in that exhibition.

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Tyrrell Tapaha is a Diné weaver and fiber artist from Goat Springs, Arizona. Their work encompasses the intergenerational pastoral living handed down through Tapaha’s grandfather, great-grandmother, and other relatives willing to teach. Tapaha produces woven textiles and felted objects for both aesthetic and utilitarian uses. These textiles are made with raw natural fibers predominantly grown on the Navajo Nation and hand-dyed with local flora from the Four Corners region. Tapaha’s weavings are tied to a life lived and intimately interwoven with feelings, memories, and experiences. They have worked as an apprentice with master weaver Roy Kady. In addition to their fiber and textile work, they also work full-time as a sheep herder in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation.

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Joan Sallas, a virtuoso of the fold, has meticulously researched and mastered the history and techniques of the art of folding. With the banquet table as setting, his expertise and philosophy pour forth in the form of splendid, folded linen. In addition to contributing to the Staging the Table exhibition, Sallas was a resident artist and scholar at Bard Graduate Center during the week of February 13.