BIO
Levon Kafafian is a multidisciplinary weaver and storyteller based in Detroit, MI. Their practice is fluid and playful, treating costume, artifact, ritual and social event as narrative threads in an evolving text. They infuse their stories and cloth with future-facing ancestral practice, hybridity and magic.
They tell stories of hybridity, healing and transition, weaving envisioned worlds into tangible objects and ephemeral experiences.
They collaborate extensively, create installations and plan/host experiential events.
Basically, they’re vers.
They hold a BFA in Crafts from the College for Creative Studies and a BA in Anthropology from Wayne State University.
JOURNEY
In my late teen years Levon became obsessed with Project Runway. I began drawing (terrible) designs for dresses and so any dreaming to continue down this path was snuffed out by critique. As it turns out, at 18 years of age I chanced into a job working at Hagopian World of Rugs, moving up in position until I could not level up any more. At this point, I became interested in learning to repair as an apprentice in the company department (because let’s be honest, I had ZERO real direction in school, having transferred through 5 intended majors at this point). My boss, Suzanne Hagopian responded to my request by suggesting I take a course in weaving at Wayne State where I was already enrolled, and if I liked it, to see if work in repair was an option.
I became enamored with weaving and other textile craft processes immediately, as if some ancestral cord was plucked in the fiber of my being. I now knew I wanted to make NEW wovens, objects I had only imagined; beautiful things to be used and loved, cherished and passed down as heirlooms (literally!). Equipped with this newfound passion, I transferred schools, began a community educational weaving studio and eventually graduated.
In the process I have met many wonderful and creative people, advocating to think differently through textiles, allowing my practice to be shaped by them. Over time I have become a highly collaborative artist, pivoting the educational studio into a hybrid arts collective, Fringe Society.
Ever more, I am moving beyond thread to weave ideas and stories together, working with others to collectively manifest our visions of the future into being.
Contact me at Lkafafian@gmail.com for inquiries