Kathie Halfin Studio

Kathie Halfin is a New York–based interdisciplinary artist working in fiber, sculpture, and installation. Rooted in traditions of weaving yet guided by experimentation, her woven sculptures honor this ancient practice as a language of care, resistance, and embodied knowledge. Her work is shaped by the experience of migration, an enduring connection to the land, and attunement to seasonal rhythms. Grounded in sensory experience, weaving becomes for her a way to engage with tactility and material memory—restoring a felt relationship between the body and the intelligence of the natural world. At the core of Halfin’s process is the transformation of industrial paper into organic, hand-spun yarn, which is then dyed and woven into sculptural cloth. This slow, labor-intensive act of unmaking and renewal echoes the quiet growth of plants. Woven patterns recall the repetition of plant cells, conveying their rhythm and growth. Shifts in tension, texture, and color evoke states of blooming, rooting, or reaching. Through these tactile gestures and intimate engagement with material, she reclaims the manufactured as sensitive and alive. Drawing on the behaviors of plants—such as coiling, clinging, and climbing—Halfin sculpts these movements in three-dimensional woven forms. By transforming paper into organic matter, she reclaims it from a utilitarian, purpose-driven material into a vital, unruly life-force. Her hand-woven works expand a tactile vocabulary of weaving to highlight plants' intelligence and their capacity to negotiate and reshape human environments.