UNCOMMON THREADS
Sebastien Courty, Textile/Surface Design ’15, portrays culture through fiber art
Formally exquisite and culturally specific, Sebastien Courty’s works sometimes double as forms of diplomacy. His most renowned commissions include artworks for the U.S. consulate in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, through the Art in Embassies program, and a portrait series for UN Women, a United Nations entity dedicated to women’s empowerment. His conceptual weaving and thread-based drawings have also been a part of Art Basel Miami and Paris and Frieze Los Angeles.
Courty refers to the 9.5-by-1.5-foot pieces in his Art in Embassies installation, titled Saudi Unity, as “Totems.” The thirteen vertically wall-mounted panels were created using a mix of threads, beads, aluminum, silk, rhinestone chains, copper, and other materials that reference the people, colors, textiles, and natural resources of the thirteen regions of Saudi Arabia.
Courty’s first exhibition of Totems took place in 2018 in the south of France during the annual Design Parade Hyères festival, and included pieces representing Kenya, Peru, New Zealand, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, and China. For Courty, the Totems are an invitation to explore and learn about a country or city that may be unfamiliar. “The artwork becomes a physical DNA sequence of the country itself,” he says.
Courty realized the potential of his work to open up complex conversations about global trade, natural resources, and sustainability while in conversation with a collector about his Tanzania Totem. The luxurious artwork—woven with tobacco leaves, tanzanite stones, and gold, which make up 98% of the country’s exports—belied the collector’s experience of the country’s widespread poverty.
“I explained that all the gold mines in the country are not owned by Tanzanians, so the wealth of the country does not stay in the country. She was fascinated by the conversation,” he says. “My intention is to invite viewers to engage with the Totems, and through their own interpretation, learn about a place, get curious, and be inspired to travel and discover more about our world.”
