Poncho c. 20th century

This Poncho, a textile of unknown date, was made anonymously, and you can see it here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The artist uses a series of vertical stripes with some striking designs. These are, what, diamonds, z's, s's and k's? The repetition makes me think about process, the hours of work and the way that, when we look at this, we can imagine the artist making it. It is the imperfections in the application of the shapes that make the work come alive, like the wonky diamond shapes that run through the center. What makes the piece is the material - the texture, the color, and the obvious hand-madeness of it. You can imagine the artist working on it, how the rhythm of the weaving might affect the way you think about the world. When I look at the piece, I think of the work of Anni Albers, whose pictorial weavings made an important contribution to blurring the boundaries between fine art and craft. It's the way she makes the work her own, even though the tradition came before her. There's no one "right" answer here. The poncho invites interpretation and appreciation of the artist's work.