Drawn primarily from the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, On loss and absence brings together over 100 objects from diverse cultures dating from antiquity to today to reveal the ways people use textiles to sustain spiritual beliefs, understand death, cope with grief, remember those who have passed, and heal from trauma, both personally and collectively.

Four themes structure the presentation: “Death and Mourning” highlights how textiles help people negotiate experiences of loss and grief and includes funeral hangings, burial cloths, and mourning samplers, along with works by such contemporary artists as Nick Cave and Carina Yepez. “Transition of Realms” expresses spiritual beliefs about life, death, and other cosmologies that are woven into textiles through works such as Indonesian palepai (or ship cloths) and a Taoist priest’s robe.

“Care and Repair” considers material losses, mending, and memory through textile fragments and highlights the science and artistry of textile conservation as a form of care. And finally “Resistance and Survival” showcases textiles as acts of defiance and cultural endurance; in this section, the works of contemporary practitioners, including the Noqanchis collective of Andean weavers and Diné (Navajo) weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas, provide insight into the enduring legacies of Indigenous textile arts of the Americas.

Together, these wide-ranging works showcase textiles as vital agents of remembrance, resilience, and continuity and provide visitors with the opportunity to look closely and honor the stories the works tell. Curated by four artists whose paths merged at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Fiber and Material Studies department, On loss and absence is deeply informed by their practices as makers and their respect for fellow artists as holders of material, ancestral, and cultural knowledge.