Artist Talk by SAR's 2024 Ronald & Susan Dubin Native Artist Fellow, Kevin Aspaas

Kevin Aspaas (he/him) is a Navajo textile and fiber artist. Known for his work with the Navajo wedge weave technique, Aspaas practices a process he calls “sheep to loom.” This process entails gathering and spinning wool from the small flock of Navajo-Churro sheep he raises in Shiprock, New Mexico. In addition to spinning his own yarn, Aspaas works exclusively with natural dyes noting that "producing textiles in the manner that ancestors have done, honors not only relatives from the past, but also the land and animals."
While in residence at SAR, Aspaas experimented with the Navajo wedge weave technique, an innovative technique originally developed by Diné weavers in the late 19th-c. The technique fell out of favor among Native weavers shortly after its conception and is rarely seen in contemporary Navajo weaving today. Aspaas combines the wedge weave technique with the two-face twill technique to produce a textile that will be the first of its kind in Navajo textiles.
Of his proposed project Aspaas says, "As a young weaver, this is my contribution to our collective Navajo weaving history in hopes that it will encourage the generation after myself to do the same."
This fellowship is funded by Ronald and Susan Dubin with additional support provided by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation
SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
Established in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), a leader in community-advised and collaborative Indigenous arts engagement and collections management. Through scholar residency, seminar, and artist fellowship programs, SAR Press publications, and a range of public programs, SAR facilitates intellectual inquiry and human understanding. SAR’s historic sixteen-acre campus sits on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people in O’gah’poh geh Owingeh or Santa Fe, New Mexico. SAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution.
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