1992-1994 Cantalloc

Jan Haag
Single strand Persian wool, gold and silk thread, with threaded needle on 18 mesh, partly unworked, canvas. Continental stitch in all four directions.

Approximately 50,787 stitches
Dimensions: 11 x 14 ¼ in.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Cantalloc means "the place of weaving." It is the title of a novel, set in Peru, which Jan Haag was writing in the 1990s. The narrator in the novel sits in the ancient ruins working on the canvas. Haag quotes from the novel: "Often when I stitch I do not realize the passage of time, and this was one of those occasions. I was not afraid." A Tibetan eye chart, forming the basis for a sun symbol, emerges from behind the Peruvian stone head. This Tibetan element is a reference to "the Asiatic origins of early Americans." The canvas is unfinished, just as it was left in the novel.