Inspired by late seventeenth-century French tapestries made from silk, gold, and other precious materials, Saban customized a computer-automated Jacquard loom to create monumental weavings using copper wire and linen yarn. She derived the imagery for this sumptuous textile from one of the first computer chips to combine two- and three-dimensional graphics. Copper Tapestry draws an analogy between that groundbreaking digital imaging tool and the Jacquard loom, which was foundational both to the mass production of richly figured woven fabrics and to the earliest computer hardware.

Gallery label from

Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction, April 20–September 13, 2025

Medium Woven copper wire and linen thread
Dimensions 11' 6 1/2" x 5 11 1/4 " (351.8 × 181 × 0.3 cm)
Credit Latin American and Caribbean Fund
Object number 339.2022
Department Painting & Sculpture

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