Pae White, Smoke Knows, 2009. Cotton and polyester, 114” X 258”
Image courtesy of The Whitney. Acquired by SF MoMA in 2010.
Ignoring traditional boundaries between the applied and fine arts, Pae White encourages viewers to take a deeper look at familiar encounters and ordinary objects. In 2006, White began creating tapestries with photographic images of crumpled aluminum foil and plumes of smoke, staging what White describes as the cotton’s “dream of becoming something other than itself” by contrasting an image of something immaterial with the physicality of fabric. This vision of an ephemeral moment suspended in space—the slight and fleeting unfurling of smoke monumentalized in the heroic tradition of tapestries—transforms an everyday image into a seductive evocation of transience and longing. In 2010 this artist created a similar work, Still, Untitled, a nearly 40-foot long tapestry that was featured in the Whitney Biennial.