Molly Haynes is a Los Angeles-based textile artist exploring weaving as a form of sculpture through a language of controlled yet expressive materials. In her work, linear abstraction unfurls into plant-like growth, reflecting a sense of awe one may feel when witnessing natural phenomena intersecting with the built environment.
With roots in Massachusetts, she earned her BFA in Textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014. She spent five years designing functional fabrics for Pollack in the interior textile industry before committing to her art practice full-time in 2019. Her work has been exhibited with Colony, New York, NY; Russell Janis, Brooklyn, NY; Transmitter, Brooklyn, NY; Room 68, Provincetown, Massachusetts; and Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal, Canada. She has been featured in Luxe, Cover, and W Magazines and was selected as one of Apartment Therapy’s 20 Design Changemakers to Know in 2020.
For more information, please see: http://www.mollyhaynes.us and on Instagram @mollyhaynes_.
Narrow works. Image courtesy of the artist.
First, and most importantly, how are you doing? How are you navigating the highs and lows?
I’m doing well, I’ve undergone a lot of changes the past few months which have been surprisingly positive. I actually just moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. My partner started grad school here this fall, so we had been anticipating the move for a while. It feels strange to update my bio as an LA-based artist because New York was such a foundation, and where most of my community is. Despite the restrictions I am loving LA though. Prior to the move, we ended up spending two months quarantined in Massachusetts with my family before driving cross-country in July. So, these past months have been a whirlwind of adjustments. Now, I’m trying to just slow down and burrow into my studio, where I feel most at home.
Molly Haynes, Untitled (Haystack Lobster Weaving), 2019. Salvaged lobster line, sisal twine. 27” wide x 44” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
It’s my experience that most artists engage with some level of self-isolation in their day-to-day art practice. Has this been your experience? And if so, have you found these innate rhythms to be helpful during this larger, world-wide experience of isolation?
Yes— ever since I left my office design job almost a year and a half ago my practice became very isolated. I am not the only introvert to say that the extra alone time has been a positive side effect…I really love being alone with my work for hours on end. At this point in the pandemic I am not all that isolated— I live with my partner and now in LA I share a studio with a friend.
Molly Haynes, Detritus, 2020. Monofilament, cotton, linen, rope scraps. 24” wide x 30” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
LA studio. Image courtesy of the artist.
It would be great if you could briefly talk us through your practice. Understanding it is integral to appreciating the multivalence of your work.
As a weaver, I work within the restrictions of the loom to transform mundane materials into expressive objects. Duality is an important theme for me— there is a level of controlled chaos in every piece I make. The carefully planned out warp (vertical threads) provides a strict system to then disrupt with the weft, which is manually placed in the horizontal. I work primarily with a loom setup called “double weave,” which is comprised of two separate warps weaving on top of each other. This is how I create the two contrasting surfaces.
At first glance, weaving appears overwhelmingly mathematical, systematic, and pre-planned. That is only half of it for me. I am interested in the element of chance as a driving force in the work, letting the materials assert themselves beyond the two-dimensional grid. I frequently use sisal twine from the hardware store, bundles of wool knitting yarn, and stiff, oftentimes found ropes. Once off the loom, I untwist and tease the edges to reveal the material’s fibrous core. My works oftentimes appear to be bursting into bizarre natural forms and bring forth a sense of growth and abundance amidst a controlled environment. Tensions between the industrial and the natural world are presented through the combination of material and weave structure. My practice oscillates between various levels of control over the fiber medium— making room for natural phenomena to peek through, distort, and overtake—bringing a sense of unforeseen discovery into the everyday.
Molly Haynes, Ocean Flower, 2019. Salvaged lobster line, cotton, polyester. 3” wide x 10” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
Molly Haynes, Twist, 2019. Salvaged lobster line, cotton, sisal twine. 20” wide x 40” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
Experiments with wire and natural materials. Image courtesy of the artist.
Has any of your imagery shifted in a reflection to what’s currently happening? And why, or why not?
I’ve been thinking a lot about controlled chaos. This has always been a theme of mine, but it is taking on a new intensity as we are facing so many crisis— fires and global warming, racial injustice, pandemic—at once. Because I work mainly in linear abstractions, the materials I use become a reflection of time and place. I’ve been delving into my rope scrap bags to make some of my most unusual and colorful works ever. There’s something freeing about arranging all of these bits of colorful debris into a large tapestry— it’s like the aftermath of an explosion, or looking into a tide pool teeming with life. Right now, I’m working on a series of small puffy striped wool pieces. I’ve been pushing dimensionality and linear distortion more and more, maybe it is a response to the feeling of accumulating disarray, in conjunction with a desire for softness.
Molly Haynes, Furrow, 2020. Cotton, linen, wool. 8” wide x 14” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
Molly Haynes, Checkered Volume Stripe 3, 2020. Cotton, linen, wool. 6” wide x 10” high. Image courtesy of the artist.
Small quarantine experiments. Image courtesy of the artist.
Are you coping differently? Inspired differently?
The whole process of weaving is what has grounded me during this time. The focus and order of setting up the loom is a physical organization of chaos. It provides me with structure, routine, and discovery in the every day. Besides weaving, I’ve been investigating tide pools, seaweed and rock formations here in Southern California. I’ve been inspired lately by the holdfasts (seaweed root-like structures which attach to rock) that wash ashore. These nest-like entanglements serve as anchors to so many organisms and have become a sort of a grounding metaphor for me during this time.
Molly Haynes, Tendrils, 2020. Salvaged lobster line and bait bags. In progress installation in LA studio. Image courtesy of the artist.
Are you reading anything?
The Curious World of Seaweed by Josie Iselin
Design as Art by Bruno Munari
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Guide to Weft Twining by David R. Fraser
Lothar Charoux | the poetics of the line by Maria Alice Milliet
Why Materials Matter by Seetal Solanki
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Finishing commission Netted Landscape in Massachusetts for Designtex office. Image courtesy of the artist.