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To translate a pattern

The Lao weaving practice, intimately tied to its complex patterns, exists and is practiced in stark contrast to western methodology of production. Lao pattern making centers around the weaver and the act of manual reproduction of their patterns over generations, to pass down their stories in cloth. In the West, the complex patterns mostly exist in two forms of representation. In museums, that depict them as part of a colonial past and more ubiquitously as home decor, in simplified basic shapes.

How can the stories of weavers from Laos be authentically translated, if their methodology and aesthetic is erased in the process of adapting to a western context?

I reworked a western handloom and created a hybrid loom, that allows me to integrate the Lao methodology and eventually the complex Lao patterns with their stories.
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