“Vox Stellarum,” or “Voice of the Stars,” is textile artist Elin Noble’s response to an early eighteenth century copperplate engraving from the 1731 book titled “Physica Sacra” by Swiss natural scientist Johann Jakob Scheuchzer. The book, and the particular image that inspired Noble’s installation, reflect the time before the Enlightenment period when ideas about the nature of beauty were evolving, and when conflicts between faith and scientific questioning arose. Using hand dyeing and clamp resist techniques, Noble creates an environment in which the interplay of light, shadow, transparency and cloth allude to the mystical and magical dimensions of a natural world that science has yet to fully explain.

Elin Noble is the award-winning author of Dyes & Paints: A Hands-On Guide to Coloring Fabric. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in fiber from the University of Washington. She lives and works in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Elin Noble will return in September 2016 to lead a dyeing workshop under the auspices of the Nebraska Fiberarts Initiative. For more information please phone the department at 402-472-2911 or visit the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery website at http://cehs.unl.edu/textilegallery/.