Memories of Future Fires

Please join us for a walkthrough of Memories of Future Fires with the artist, Tali Weinberg.

Through weaving and sculpture, I trace relationships between climate crisis, extraction, illness, and sense of place; between personal and communal loss; and between corporeal and ecological bodies. In my newest work I interweave petrochemical-derived materials, plant materials, and landscape imagery to draw connections between climate crisis, fossil fuel extraction, and the buildup of toxic plastics in the earth, water, and our bodies.

Forest fires; smoke inhalation; microplastics in our ecosystems, blood, and lungs; loss of homes past and future. The hand-woven pieces in “Memories of Future Fires” each start with photos I took in a fire-decimated landscape in the Pacific Northwest. I reduce the trees in these landscapes down to their fundamental shapes before rematerializing them with petrochemical-derived monofilament. As I look to connections between the life-sustaining circulatory systems that are both internal and external to the human body, the abstracted tree forms also begin to evoke hearts and lungs. Up close, the transparent, porous, woven structures take shape as cells and flames.

Tali Weinberg’s work is held in public and private collections and is exhibited internationally. Exhibitions include the Griffith Art Museum, 21C Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, University of Colorado Art Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, Center for Craft, and Form & Concept gallery. Her art has been featured in academic journals and popular press including the New York Times, onEarth Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Fiber Art Now, and Ecotone. Honors include a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Serenbe Fellowship, Windgate Fellowship to Vermont Studio Center, Lia Cook Jacquard Residency, SciArt Bridge Residency for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and a residency at the Museum of Art and Design, among others. She has taught at California College of the Arts (CCA), University of Tulsa, and Penland School of Craft. Tali holds an MFA from CCA and a BA and MA from New York University. She is currently a 2022 Illinois Artist Fellow.