Circuit Board
I am fascinated by the historical intersection of early tech with craft. In the late 1960s, companies such as Fairchild Semiconductor and even the NASA Apollo missions relied on craftswomen—including Navajo weavers on Shiprock reservation in New Mexico—to assemble and construct circuit boards and computer memory modules. In other words, the most advanced tech in the world was being made by craftswomen, yet the largely-accepted hierarchy valuing tech far above craft persists to this day. The Circuit Board series (2016–present) explores the tension between these assumptions by contrasting male-dominated tech world motifs via the gendered skills of so-called “women’s work.” That electronic circuit boards connect and conduct power only heightens the metaphor.
Each Circuit Board is a spontaneous improvisation and thus unique. Commissions welcome: contact studio
Knot Installation
A contemporary re-envisioning of the classic sailors’ knot boards. Knots are a universal language spoken around the world. They reside at the intersection of ingenious design, practical function, and rich cultural history. Each unique Knot Installation in this series (2017–present) brings aesthetics to this intersection. In addition to the installation, I print a personalized, hard-cover book with photographs and names of every knot included in the work, intended for the viewer to use as a legend.
Commissions welcome: contact studio
Hitching Post
In the knot world, the term Hitches denotes a family of knots that must be made around an object; if the object around which the Hitch is tied were to be removed, the Hitch collapses and loses its integrity. This concept inspired the Hitching Post series (2019–present), a group of freestanding and wall-based works that reinterpret the historic function of a hitching post—a communal object designed for temporarily securing horses—as an accentuation of contemporary gathering places. Installed in spaces of camaraderie and community, and often featuring site-specific compositions, these works bring together the social and utility purposes of hitch knots and posts.
Commissions welcome: contact studio
Linescape
In the Linescape series (2018–present), a single knot is repeated, combined, and transformed into a landscape. These works balance shape and texture, in linear compositions of geometric patterns and abstracted natural topographies—from coastlines to mountain ranges. The wall sculptures convey landscape art traditions such as tapestries and scrolls that continue to be cultivated by artists throughout the world.
Commissions welcome: contact studio
Diamond Ring
Inspired by fashion editor Diana Vreeland’s maxim that “the eye has to travel,” each work in the Diamond Ring series (2017–present) is made from hundreds of feet of rope, a single, continuous line of knotting that forms a visual pathway around a diamond-shaped cluster of rings. As a reminder of the preciousness of life’s journeys, every composition has a distinct route; no two works are the same.
Commissions welcome: contact studio
Helix Lights
Modernizing the traditional form of square knotting known as macrame, the double helix shape of the works in the Helix lighting series (2016–present) is formed by a single, repeated knot that naturally spirals like DNA strands.
I’ve collaborated with Brightbound, a lighting company based in Napa and Brooklyn, to elevate the lights into chandeliers and pendants incorporating options such as hand-blown glass globes, solid bronze sockets, turned wood caps, and wired frames for draping. My relationship with Brightbound began in 2016 while working on a custom chandelier for a residential project in Napa Valley. The collaboration quickly developed into a friendship which led to the launch of a line of co-branded light fixtures.
For info and inquiries, please see the Brightbound x Windy Chien collaboration.
