Anne Xavier Heide

Joining us From: Rock Island, IL

On Loom: 2

Tell us about yourself and what led to the Residency?

I’m an artist working primarily in fiber and sculpture originally from Chicago, IL. Right now I live in Rock Island, IL where I’m a Visiting Professor of Art at Augustana College. My work is centered around the lifecycle of clothing, particularly its role in formation of gender identity and industry since the industrial revolution.

I found out about Praxis from a professor in college soon after I learned how to weave. When I started graduate school and was getting into weaving more seriously I learned about the digital weaving residency and it seemed like a distant dream!

Have you had any previous experience with Digital Weaving or Jacquard?

I wove on a TC2 in graduate school at the University of Kansas. As a GTA I also assisted with setup of the loom when it first arrived, and I loved seeing the whole process of warping and dressing the loom from start to finish. I also attended the Praxis and Practice digital weaving conference in 2023 and the Weaving Workshop Weekend at LMRM last October.

Any goals for the residency you'd like to share?

This past year, I experimented with doublecloth structures on a floor loom where the epi and ppi are different densities on the two separate layers. I made several weavings using doubleweave pickup with a background layer with rag rug strip weft and a foreground layer made with more traditional weaving yarn. I am planning to make several weavings on the TC2 at Praxis using this same concept, but with more freedom to use various structures together than I have on the floor loom.

Connect with Anne:
Instagram: @annexavierheide
website: www.annexavierheide.com