Los-Angeles based artist Diedrick Brackens is best known for his woven tapestries that explore allegory and narrative through the artist’s autobiography, broader themes of African American and queer identity, as well as American history. Brackens employs techniques from West African weaving, quilting from the American South and European tapestry-making to create both abstract and figurative works. Bracken’s work the reasoning beast (2021)—currently installed in OCMA’s exhibition Color is the First Revelation of the World—exemplifies Bracken’s intimate use of color and material, where washed in hues of black, blue, and purple, a figure embraces a goat to soar through the night sky.
He and Zuckerman discuss his relationship to craft, weaving, and storytelling, how he starts, breaking rules, why cotton matters, Texas, his titles, abstraction and figuration, and what role hope and empathy play!