WARP is a collective studio located in Atlantic Mills, Providence, RI. Artists in WARP emerge from varied interests and disciplines, and together develop a studio infrastructure with emphasis on pattern, textiles, printmaking and paper works. The collective has 8 resident members representing varied creative interests and disciplines; Nat Brennan, Cybele Collins, Becci Davis, Lu Heintz, Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, Jordan Seaberry, Eliza Squibb, and Eric Sung. We are interested in creating ties across various career stages and practices.



Our installation centers on the pattern of the keffiyeh, a scarf traditionally worn in many arid regions of the Middle East as protection against the sun and sand, which has become a Palestinian symbol since the 1950’s. The woven motifs in the keffiyeh represent connections to land, water, and heritage; universal human rights and experiences. Working into the black and white pattern, each artist in our collective has re-created it through their own lens; including symbolic images like the Palestinian sunbird representing Indigenous Palestinian heritage, portraiture, poppy flowers and other plants emblematic of resistance and solidarity across cultures, and words in Arabic for Respect + Dignity, Peace, Water + Justice, Human, Life + Freedom.



We are integrating our diverse research; including the history of incarceration in Rhode Island, with documentation of artifacts unearthed from the ruins of RI’s first prison, as well as exploring parallels between the current struggle for human rights in Gaza, apartheid in South Africa, and the civil rights movement in the United States. While elements of our research touch on histories that divide us and create human suffering, our keffiyeh pattern design is focused on what brings people together and the woven ties that connect us.