Hurricane

For Sylvia Heyden, the practice of weaving was similar to playing a musical instrument. A life-long violinist, she drew comparisons between the strings of her instrument and the threads that made up her tapestries: “When I play my violin, I see the visual interpretation on the loom of musical pieces; when I am weaving, I listen to the inner rhythm of the forms and colors as my tapestry evolves.” Accordingly, in some of her works Heyden did not rely on sketches or pre-planned designs, preferring to allow each weaving to take shape organically, based on her own internal vision. In "Hurricane," the artist conveys the frenzy and chaos of a storm by combining converging, intricate patterns with dynamic, multi-colored strips of textiles layered in three dimensions.