A large-scale woven art piece made locally in the desert is set to hang in the US Embassy in Erbil, Iraq. But you can see it tomorrow before it’s flown to the embassy.
Janelle Pietrzak, artist and owner of All Roads in Yucca Valley, was commissioned by the government to create a massive weaved art piece for the embassy several years ago.
“The art in embassies program, which is a state-run program, reached out to me about eight years ago. The curator reached out to me about making a commissioned weaving for a new embassy building in Erbil, Iraq.
“I didn’t hear from them for three years, then I moved to the desert. During COVID they emailed and said ‘it’s on.’ I had to become a government contractor which took a long time. I think I started work on the project about a year after that.
“I’ve been working on it for five years. Off and on. It’s a hand woven textile. I wove most of it, but I had various people helping me over the years. I had a loom set up for a while, and if you came to visit me in the studio, I taught you how to weave, and you wove some of it. A lot of people have woven on it. I’m excited to be done!”
The finished piece is more than 20 by 20 feet, and Pietrzak described it as inspired by the architecture of the citadel in Erbil that will house the embassy.
“It’s three panels. It’s a woven textile piece. They wanted me to be inspired by the citadel which will contain the embassy. They say it is the oldest inhabited building on the planet. That’s a big source of pride for the city of Erbil.
“Because we were inspired by the citadel, there’s like these arch-columns on part of the citadel. I took those arches as a major inspiration.
“There’s three pieces so it is a triptych. These three panels have an arch at the top. They look very architectural. There’s all kinds of tile-work throughout the citadel, so I was pulling really bright, saturated color from the tiles
“a lot of the material in the piece is cotton rope. We sent that out to be dyed, so we have a lot of special custom rope colors.
“There’s brass elements as well. It’s really shiny.”
Pietrzak says that she will be displaying the finished piece for a few hours Tuesday before it is flown to Iraq with other pieces commissioned for the embassy.
“You can come to our little art show that we’re doing in the parking lot of All Roads. Tuesday March 4. from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Well hang it up for a couple of hours.”
Stop by from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. tomorrow at All Roads Studio, located at 55879 Twentynine Palms in Yucca Valley.
