Weaving Resilience: How Robin Kang’s Textile Art Reflects Nature’s Strength

Robin Kang, artist, weaver and sound healer, was inspired to use textile art to showcase the resilience of native Texas plants following the unprecedented floods of her hometown of Kerrville, Texas. Now on view at Austin Central Library through Jan. 4, 2026, her exhibit, “The Light That Grows Here,” combines ancestral weaving traditions with contemporary computation.

Woven Into Practice

After receiving her BFA in fine art at Texas Tech University, Kang moved to New York City to work at an arts nonprofit. While in the city, Kang continued pursuing her creative passions and applied to graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kang began working with the school’s fiber art department, which had one of the first digital Jacquard looms in the country. Her exposure to this loom catapulted her journey of creating art with this new technology involving textiles.

“I found myself making my work connected to an appreciation for the past and the handmade, but also a digital innovation,” Kang said. “I wondered, ‘How can we utilize these new technologies and tools to engage in this conversation that has been quite ancient?’ All humans in all cultures have had some form of a weaving practice since the dawn of humanity.”

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“Butterfly Effect,” featured in Kang’s exhibition “The Light That Grows Here.” (Courtesy of the artist)

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Robin Kang’s textile work, “Cactus of the Four Winds.” (Courtesy of the artist)

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“Buttercup,” by Robin Kang. (Courtesy of the artist)

An Exhibition Rooted in Resilience

After discovering her fascination with creating art that blends technology and textiles, Kang sought to learn more about the cultures with deep weaving traditions, studying with groups from South America and Scandinavia who have preserved the practice for generations. Through trips to work with indigenous weavers in Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, she learned about how the imagery in their textiles often celebrated natural earth elements, which contributed to her idea to focus her exhibition on native Texas Hill Country plants.

“This body of work (was a chance for me to) sink in and study various plants that are native to the Texas Hill Country, and I chose to weave them with threads that are iridescent and move and change color in the light,” Kang said. “The show sparkles and the plants glow, giving off different hues and colors … The idea is that they are the light. This idea of the resilience of plants native to the Texas Hill Country, of the semi-arid climate and the need to preserve water when it’s needed.”

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“Chocolate Daisy,” by Robin Kang. (Courtesy of the artist)

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“La Lunita y el Lupino,” a textile piece by Robin Kang. (Courtesy of the artist)

Soundscapes for Community Care

Alongside the exhibition, Kang used her knowledge of sound healing to offer “Still Waters Within,” a sound bath event that featured percussion instruments, handmade drums and wind chimes. Designed to calm the nervous system and create space for emotional release, the event also incorporated water collected from Barton Springs, which was later returned to the springs as a symbolic offering to the waters of the Hill Country.

“People need their nervous system supported, and many of the special tools are specifically designed to move stuck energies in the body,” Kang said. “Ultimately, that was the vision … and we had a lot of beautiful feedback afterwards.”

During the exhibit’s run you can take part in other special events, or simply stop in and explore the exhibit’s capacity to illuminate the hidden wisdom within plant life.

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