Mia Weiner, SIRENS

“ In my dreams I am constantly hypnotized by the color blue. The sight of bodies floating together in space, united and strong, occupies my mind. The universe, a place of play, relaxation and contemplation, mirrors the sky and water. I am drawn to memories of summer tide pools, sun soaked bodies and salty skin.” - Mia Weiner

Mia Weiner's research focuses on the way the human figure has been represented in art history and in particular how female subjects have often been depicted as objects. How do we shift that gaze, that power dynamic, that narrative?
Her tapestries beckon the viewer into a realm where mythology intertwines with contemporary discourse on gender and femininity, and invites us to question and reimagine the world in which we live.
In this new series, Sirens (2023), the artist uses her body in every texture she approaches, along with the models she choreographs together. Starting with the photographic medium, the immortalized bodies are modified before being hand-woven: some parts are removed and objects added, colors and contrasts altered. Monochromatic blues are used to depict female figures on a rocky shore, causing the visibility, the time and place to become blurred and complicated.
When the photograph is transformed into fabric, each pixel becomes a crossing of threads in tension, and the relationship between object and image begins to equalize. The information provided in the woven photographs dance between the familiar and otherworldly.
Part of Mia Weiner's inspiration also comes from non-Western deities, such as the Hindu goddess of the Ganges, and blue skin has been used to depict certain gods, symbolizing their infinite and immeasurable nature. By removing heads the identities represented here are concealed, and figures can become archetypes: as nymphs these bodies are characterized by gentleness and undying beauty; as sirens, on the other hand, they can be wild, dangerous and unpredictable.
Mostly monochromatic, the works sometimes shift in color unexpectedly or include the visual markers of production or glitch. These glitches and breaks in cloth and image become moments for queerness to enter the work and a different point of access and intimacy. Mia Weiner’s work is always about connection. A connection between bodies and cloth and as a shared experience.