Tania Candiani

String Loom is a musical instrument assembled on a loom. The device has a total of 69 strings arranged in three different sets: 17, 16, and 36, with the purpose to find different timbres in the sound.

Working with a local loom that was disrepair, the project acknowledges the slowly dying art of hand loom weaving in Kerala, India. A thriving form that was brought to Kerala to serve the royal family, and flourished locally until a few decades ago, picking up many students of the technique, that is been replaced by machine-woven fabric which is able to simulate the aesthetics of hand-woven textile.

After a collaboration on site for several weeks, luthiers from Mexico and India transformed the found loom into a musical instrument, replacing thread with sitar strings, and assimilating sounding boxes made of birch wood into its original design. Without tampering with the logic of the machinery of the loom, the intention was to imagine a future where the same technique and design can be repurposed to the logic of sound and another art form, music.