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Diedrick Brackens, \u2018you\u2019ll never get to heaven if you break my heart\u2019 (detail), 2026; Woven cotton and acrylic yarn. (Charlie Villyard\/YBCA)<\/p>\nAfter dying lengths of cotton fiber in his studio, the weaving process causes sections of color to shift and misregister slightly, blurring the edges of shapes. Brackens plays off that painterly effect by leaving tails of black yarn dangling, like drips, from his silhouettes. <\/p>\n
The best part of seeing gather the night at YBCA \u2014 and all the space that venue allows \u2014 is that visitors get to walk around many of the works. Two pieces hang from handsome wooden racks that nod to Brackens\u2019 floor looms. Others hang from the two walls of a framed-out domestic space, which includes an installation of a bed (covered with a woven textile, of course), an overturned basket and a pile of pungent yellow soap. <\/p>\n
Diedrick Brackens, \u2018you\u2019ll never get to heaven if you break my heart\u2019 (detail), 2026; Woven cotton and acrylic yarn. (Charlie Villyard\/YBCA)<\/p>\n
On an \u201cinterior\u201d wall hangs Brackens\u2019 sole work that places his figures indoors, one bending backward to kiss another. The pair\u2019s arms bracket each other\u2019s heads in arcs of mutual protection. <\/p>\n
Even visitors with minimal knowledge of what it means to make a double weave textile can intuit the construction of Brackens\u2019 works, thanks to these airy hanging arrangements. On the versos, color-inverted landscapes become devoid of figures, which Brackens embroiders onto a textile\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
Some of the most poetic moments in gather the night come from the juxtaposition of front and back. On blood compass, the show\u2019s largest piece, two figures look up at a flock of geese, a lighthouse in the background. But on the other side of the textile, the geese, water and lighthouse are alone. A few glimpses of black thread signal the figures\u2019 ghostly presence.<\/p>\n
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Diedrick Brackens, \u2018commitments\u2019 and \u2018help is available,\u2019 2025; both woven cotton and acrylic yarn. (Charlie Villyard\/YBCA)<\/p>\n
In other works, figures blend into foliage, appearing on a textile\u2019s surface only in bits and pieces. commitments and help is available, both from 2025, show figures sitting cross-legged, arms raised above their heads. In the former, branches of angel\u2019s trumpet occlude the heads and arms. In the latter, a bush of devil\u2019s trumpet surrounds a torso and legs. Here, the repeated pose looks like a call for salvation.<\/p>\n
Brackens\u2019 dusky hues, especially in the more recent pieces, speak to night as a period of possibility, of slippery identity and greater freedom. But just as there is a flip side to each textile, so night gives way to day, and its potential for both visibility and accompanying violence. Brackens\u2019 great skill is holding these realities together, embedding danger within softness, and giving his figures the freedom to stretch their arms, legs and eyes to a beautiful sherbet sky.<\/p>\n