2005
Interactive audio and visual instrument, constructed with a 250 year-old loom

Once upon a time, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region was a prime site of textile production in France and a cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Honouring this history, Musical Loom sprung from an 18th-century loom, acquired from the Jacquard Museum of France. The loom is a significant vessel of history. It has witnessed the region’s rise and decline. The work invites interaction with hand movements over the yarns, which weave together light and sounds. Participants can play the loom like a harp, control a four-tone harmony and vary its volume, generating mechanical sounds or musical expressions. When the work was first exhibited, locals shared their tunes with moving enthusiasm. Old weavers played with seasoned fingers the sounds of glory and loss.

A production of Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts. With the generous support of Francis Bras, Jean-Pierre Courcelle, Jean-Baptiste Droulers, Isabelle Bohnke, Richard Campagne, Matthieu Chéreau, Alain Fleischer, José Honoré, Joelle Pijaudier, Pascal Pronnier, Blandine Tourneux, Musée du Jacquard and Osage Gallery

2005 Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts, Tourcoing, France
2006 IRCAM – Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2006 City Sonics, Les Abattoirs, Mons, Belgium
2007 La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
2007 Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
2008 Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
2010 World Expo – Pavilion Lille Europe, Shanghai, China
2010 The Creators Project, 798, Beijing, China
2012 International Art & Science Exhibition, Beijing, China
2014 Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
2014 Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Italy
2018 Pearl Art Museum, Shanghai, China