Melissa Cody

Germantown Sampler, 2011
three-ply aniline dyed wool

In Navajo tapestry, color, patterns, symbols, and materials bear meanings with which Cody weaves new narratives on the loom.
In Germantown Sampler, the traditional serrated diamond shape— known as an eye-dazzler-has its soft shades of green, blue, and pink gradually replaced by vibrant colors, such as red, orange, and brown. This chromatic "invasion" refers to the implementation of aniline-dyed commercial wool from Germantown, which came into use during the tragic event of forced migration and imprisonment of the Navajo people, known as the Long Walk (1863-1868). There is also an "invasion" of black and gray lines, which provide a glitch effect on the traditional pattern, thus adding another layer to this history: the influence of the digital universe on Cody's textile work.

Spider Woman Greets the Dawn, 2013
three-ply aniline dyed wool

Weaving was taught to the Navajo people by the sacred character of the Spider Woman, who, at dawn, descended from the heavens into the Navajo territory's mountains and conveyed her knowledge to the women.
The work Spider Woman Greets the Dawn refers directly to this story.
The mountaintop is portrayed as a three-dimensional illusion caused by superimposing planes with the "serrated diamond" pattern, known as eye-dazzler. This pattern emerged in Navajo tapestry at the end of the nineteenth century, as weavers began using Germantown wool dyed with aniline, and is recurring in several of the artist's pieces. In this work, Cody juxtaposes orange, red, and black shades, simulating sunrise. The image of a spider in the center of these overlapping planes conveys the feel that we are seeing it from an aerial view, from the mountaintop.

Cliff Dweller, 2017
three-ply aniline dyed wool

Cody's oeuvre shows recurring references to the landscape of No Water Mesa, the place where she was born and raised, on the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona. No Water Mesa is located in a region known as the Painted Desert, due to the varying shades of red and purple of the rocks that form its canyons and mesas. One can see this color palette in Cliff Dweller, a work in which, through the use of rhombuses of different sizes and colors, Cody creates a zigzag that alludes to the movement of the water that flows through the rocks during the rainy season in Grand Falls, also in Arizona. The sand minerals come into contact with the water and turn it brown, like chocolate milk. The water, which flows through the canyons, makes the pictorial aspect of the region even more evident.

Lightning Storm, 2012
three-ply aniline dyed wool

In this work, Cody translates the experience of being in front of a lightning storm: the depiction of a zigzag snaking across the sky and the flash that appears afterward, portrayed as the white stripe on the right. The pattern of serrated diamonds-known as eye-dazzler-, recurring in several of the artist's works, creates a luminous effect that highlights the bluish lightning bolt that crosses the plane from top to bottom. Lightning bolts are recurring symbols in Navajo visual culture and are linked to the story of Spider Woman, a sacred figure who taught women the art of weaving. In the traditional Navajo loom, the warp threads stand for the power of thunder, which connects heaven and earth—one can find a chart explaining the loom and its symbolism in the showcase at the end of this exhibition.

White Out, 2012
three-ply aniline dyed wool
In White Out, Cody addresses her training as a weaver and her role in an ancient history. Produced at a time when the artist was beginning her studies at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Cody felt then that her work was a kind of "intrusion" into the "traditional" history of Navajo tapestry; however, it had its place within that history, and she should claim it. In this work, the artist devised two white sections on a background with an eye-dazzler pattern, typical of Navajo tapestry since the end of the nineteenth century. The white sections dialogue with each other but not with the background, which makes them impossible to overlook. The white, superimposed on the colored pattern, evokes at the same time an idea of erasure and openness to something new, even though it is part of a broader history.

Navajo Transcendent, 2014
three-ply aniline dyed wool

At the center of Navajo Transcendent is a whirling log, an ancient Navajo symbol linked to the four sacred mountains that surround the Navajo territory. After the Second World War, it was mistaken for a swastika and disappeared from Navajo tapestries traded in the United States to avoid associations with Nazi Germany. We can find similar symbols in several ancient cultures-from the Celts to Buddhists, Greeks, Hindus, etc.-and among other Indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as the Hopi in the USA and the Kuna Yala in Panama. In this work, a symbol usually depicted as a flat drawing gains volume, referring to a disruption with the limits of the media itself as it leaps towards the viewer. Its title also calls for overcoming categories imposed by non-Indigenous people that diminish and restrict the complexity of Navajo art.

Navajo Whirling Log, 2019
aniline dyed single-ply threads, hand-dyed variegated wool

In Navajo Whirling Log, Cody combines two sacred symbols of Navajo culture: the whirling log and the Spider Woman Cross beneath an eye-dazzler background. The whirling log is an ancient symbol and is used in several healing rituals. This symbol disappeared from weavings traded during the Second World War to avoid mistaken links with the Nazi swastika. For Cody and a generation of Navajo artists, the reclaiming of this sacred symbol and its proper contextualization are essential for the preservation of their culture for future generations. For its part, the cross symbol (+) is one of the oldest found on tapestries, emerging frequently to remind weavers of the wisdom and teachings of the Spider Woman.

Pocketful of Rainbows, 2019
wool warp, weft, selovedge cords, and aniline dyes

Dopamine Dream, 2023
Jacquard wool tapestry, fringe aniline dyed wool

Dopamine Dream is part of Cody's research into dopamine, the neurotransmitter that carries information from the brain to other parts of the body. This is also the only work in the exhibition produced on a Jacquard loom, with its image digitally produced by the artist. This loom was conceived in France in 1801 by Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) as a machine that used punched cards to guide the weaving. In 1843, English mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), inspired by Jacquard's loom, created the first algorithm to be processed by a machine, thus becoming the "mother" of programming as we know it today. In a combination of technologies, Cody, who brought computer language to the loom, brings the Navajo tapestry's language to the machine, showing that modern and ancient technologies are not separate.