Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz

Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz marks the first survey of acclaimed Navajo/Diné weaver and mathematics educator Marilou Schultz. On view through November 29, 2026, the exhibition positions Schultz as an innovator whose work across culture and industry has influenced the practices of art, Navajo weaving, and computer architecture over a 65-year career. Replica of a Chip traces the full arc of Schultz’s artistic practice, demonstrating how she has consistently pushed the boundaries of experimentation within Navajo weaving, first through teaching herself new weaving styles, dyes, and techniques and later, using it as a means to reflect on the digital technologies shaping contemporary culture and society—from early computer microprocessors to stock market tickers and other digital data.

Schultz began weaving at age seven, observing her mother and grandmother at the loom as part of a family tradition spanning four generations. She trained in traditional techniques grounded in symmetry and cultural symbolism, key characteristics of Navajo weaving. By the 1980s, she was experimenting with new techniques, designs, and dyes while pursuing a career as a math teacher, the stability of which allowed her to focus on weaving as an art rather than solely a means of financial support.

Schultz was commissioned by the Intel Corporation in 1994 to create a woven replica of its Pentium chip, a brand of microprocessors produced from the 1990s into the 2000s. The resulting work, Replica of a Chip (1994), reflects Schultz’s adaptation to new forms of weaving, while pointing to the deeply intertwined history of Navajo women and semiconductor manufacturing.

The Intel commission marked the launch of a new body of chip-inspired weavings by Schultz, including Popular Chip (2025) and Integrated Circuit Chip & AI Diné Weaving (2024), which further illustrate the aesthetic and technical relationship between weaving and computer chip design. Forming a centerpiece of the exhibition, a selection of these computer chip weavings highlights Schultz’s sustained engagement with technology and the digital world throughout her career.

The exhibition will also feature a selection of works from the 1980s to the present, including weavings created by her mother, Martha Schultz, grandmother, Mary Jasbah Clay, and niece, Melissa Cody, that situate her practice as being informed by intergenerational mentorship, and traditional weaving styles such as doubletwill, and Two Grey Hills. The Germantown style, which emerged from the Navajo Long Walk, is another example of intergenerational exchange within Schultz’s family: one of the last weavings her mother made was in this style, from wool gifted from Melissa Cody. Throughout, the works demonstrate Schultz’s technical innovation, such as her use of the wedge weave—a method that allows for asymmetric and three-dimensional designs—her incorporation of metallic thread to represent the aluminum and copper found in microchips, and her novel use of natural and chemical dyes.

The presentation also includes archival materials related to Fairchild Industries’ manufacturing plant in Shiprock on Navajo Nation that invite viewers to consider the complex intersection of Navajo textiles and technology. In the 1960s and 1970s, Fairchild Semiconductors operated a plant on the outskirts of the Navajo Nation, employing primarily Navajo women. The plant closed in 1975 following reports of poor working conditions and a peaceful standoff between Navajo workers and local law enforcement, resulting in widespread layoffs of Navajo workers. Schultz’s chip-inspired weavings give visibility to this history and to the technical achievements of Indigenous communities that have gone unrecognized.

The exhibition is curated by Candice Hopkins (citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, CCS Bard ‘03), Executive Director and Chief Curator of Forge Project and Fellow in Indigenous Art History and Curatorial Studies at CCS Bard.

Exhibition research and coordination by Mary Rozell with curatorial assistance by Amelia Russo. Truth Murray-Cole (CCS Bard ‘26) contributed writing and research to the exhibition interpretive materials.