Pattern, repetition, and scale are three of several strategies she employs when seeking to find a singular knot’s ultimate expressive potential. “My favorite knot to tie is the Five-Strand Star Knot. During The Year of Knots, in which I taught myself one new knot every day for one year, the Star Knot was hands down the most difficult to learn. It brought me to tears; it was so difficult.” These days, she can do it with her eyes closed. She makes good use of any scraps and short ends by gifting Star Knots to studio visitors. Several months into The Year of Knots, She nailed each daily knot to the wall of what was then her studio (i.e. her living room), she realized they were holding together beautifully, like a growing amoeba. “I realized that by the end of the year I’d have a massive installation of 366 knots (2016 was a leap year); this was amazing because I hadn’t set out to make art; I had undertaken the project as a journey of self-education, not art.” Five years later, she has a 1500 square foot studio, she makes fine art for a living, and all of that started with the exercise of daily practice. Not only are her art works more than the sum of their parts, but the steps she took to get here have resulted in an entirely new life. With the Circuit Boards in particular, the meaning of incorporating the story of “women’s work” alongside the Circuit Board abstraction did not occur to her until the body of work had been developed for a few years. “Some artist’s start with [a] concept, but I do not. I start a fine art work with the approach of a craftsperson who is fluent in the language of the materials themselves—in my case, rope, knots, and line.” As a former record shop owner I asked Chien what music she liked to listen to when she knots. “My tastes are wide and omnivorous. I’m reasonably expert in many genres, including 1960s Jamaican Rocksteady, 1970s Ethiopian jazz, ‘90s indie rock, Japanese noise, and more.” If readers are interested in hearing exactly what she listens to in the studio, her Spotify playlist WINDY STARS contains 90 hours of excellent tuneage.
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