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Weaving Water – An interactive installation by Iris Sullivan Daire

This season, Sou’wester Arts presents Weaving Water, an immersive and interactive fiber installation by artist Iris Sullivan Daire, on view in the Art Trailer Gallery at The Sou’wester Lodge. The exhibition invites visitors into a contemplative sanctuary centered on our relationship with water. Through handwoven textiles, natural dyes, and participatory elements, the installation explores water as both a life-sustaining force and a sacred presence deserving of protection and care.

At its core, Weaving Water asks a simple yet profound question: What water do you belong to? Drawing from global traditions that honor rivers and waterways as living beings, the installation encourages visitors to reflect on the sources of water that nourish their lives, both known and unseen.

The exhibition space is composed of intricately handwoven works dyed with natural indigo, including rugs, table runners, and sculptural elements created from repurposed materials. Each piece references the movement, memory, and cycles of water, while also highlighting sustainable practices and deep material awareness. Subtle symbolic details, such as red thread lines representing life and boundaries, reinforce the urgency of protecting water in an era of increasing environmental strain.

Visitors are invited to engage directly with the installation through two participatory components. The Tributary Book offers a space to name and honor personal and ancestral waterways through writing, drawing, or reflection. The Community Water Talisman Tapestry allows participants to weave a ribbon into a collective textile, transforming individual acts of remembrance into a shared expression of care and intention. Together, these elements foster a sense of connection, responsibility, and collective stewardship.

Artist Watershed Bio

I was born in Gladwin County Michigan, homeland of the Ojibwe Peoples. The Cedar River is the closest river to where I was born. The Cedar, Sugar, Little Sugar, Tobacco, and Molasses are all Relational Rivers of my home county, and all flow into the Tittabawassee River, which in turn flows into the Saginaw river, joining Lake Huron, Lake Erie, into the Saint Lawrence River, flowing over Niagara Falls and eventually joining the Atlantic Ocean. All of these rivers of my home county are tea colored due to tannin flowing through fallen leaves of the hardwood forests.

At twenty I moved to the lands of the Kalapuya peoples in Lane County Oregon, where the Mckenzie meets the Willamette River. It was in that county that I eloped with my husband Joe, standing with our bare feet in the water of Shotgun Creek. All of these waters flow towards the mighty Columbia River. After graduation from University of Oregon, We followed the water, moving to the homeland of the Chinook and Clatsop Peoples in Astoria, and settling on the banks of Columbia River Estuary, where river water is embraced by the salty sea, and the tidal shifts can be as much as ten feet. Bear Creek Watershed near Svensen supplies drinking water to Astoria.  

Like you, there are many many more unknown watersheds that tangibly provide me life.

Iris is a fiber artist who works with natural color and installation. She holds a BFA from UO, and teaches art to humans. Whole hearted thanks to my husband Joe, and sons Sam & Tully, who provided significant help with this installation. Gratitude to Sou’wester Arts for all they do to nourish art on the coast.This installation is part of a series of seasonal interactive exhibitions created as part of the Sou’wester Arts Installation Fellowship.

Iris is the cofounder, along with Britt Boles,  of Indigofest, an annual art retreat celebrating indigo dyeing from plant to cloth. Indigofest happens at the Sou’wester each August. 

Her website | Indigofest

Exhibition Dates:   July 3 – September 20,  2026Art Trailer Gallery at The Sou’wester Lodge 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA

Opening reception: Thur, Aug 27th, 5pm-7pm
The Sou’wester Lodge / Art Trailer Gallery
3728 J Pl, Seaview, WA

Dreaming our Solar Punk Future – An interactive installation by Iris Sullivan Daire

April – July, 2026

This is a place for the tender, the ephemeral, the wonder – a space to lead us to remember the power we
have within ourselves to co-create the world. Solar Punk is an artistic movement that encompasses visions for a future based on the interconnection of nature and humanity – it is a sample space expander, making room for imagining into how our world will function when we adopt more equitable and sustainable ideals. The wisdom is in the room already – countless traditional cultures have deep understanding of how things are underneath the glamour of the deceivers. Our bodies still know what is true, what is beautiful, and what is worth standing for. When we write it down, and witness what others have written, we are less alone. Reality is a game of smoke and mirrors – a shift in perspective changes everything. Most things are ephemeral if we adjust the timescale. In our brief moment here, we are never alone. We are many, those who water the seeds of harm are few. When we plant a garden of love we are in alignment with the universe – pollinators will come and make the seeds of our visions fertile. There are many threads that weave our world, when we claim our agency we change the web. These times call us to connect to the wisdom of our hearts. From a place of conviction we find others who believe as we do. Others to walk arm and arm with. New paths of light open before us. Together we are strong. This installation acknowledges the changing nature of reality, and explores how we may wield our discernment to affect change. By envisioning a positive solar punk future we have something to walk towards. We escape the never ending onslaught of the senses steering us towards doom. Actively working towards a more equitable world is the best antidote for what besieges us, as the communities we build will get us to the other side. There already is a web of nurturing which holds everything together. Building a solar punk future involves near infinite actions large and small, as we each start from where we are building the skills we need to thrive. This is your invitation to pause, drop into the infinite moment, connect to your inner knowingness of how wonderful things could be. Through play we can gain perspective to adjust our path, to step towards that which nourishes and uplifts us all.

Artist Statement:
Iris Sullivan Daire has been weaving since the age of 7. She is an installation artist who delights in creating spaces where we can step out of the mundane into something deeper. Using botanical colors and fibers to evoke the memory of possible futures. 
She lives in Astoria, Oregon and spends much of her time making art with the children who live near the mouth of the mighty Columbia River. 

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Grotto of the Root Mother By Iris Sullivan Daire

December 13, 2025 – March 2, 2026

Enter the grotto of the Divine Root Mother, Madder. Her blood red roots the color of birth & death. Here the unseen world has messages for us.  We need only pause to give offerings and listen deeply. When we are grounded, anything can serve as a sign – guidance emerges from the fall of a stick, or the flight of a crow when we are connected.

The loom of destiny is here, weaving the roots of our lives – we are woven and interwoven with the souls we connect with, and the land where we stand. Each thread a choice made. 

Madder is the divine feminine – Her reds are precious. She quietly asserts what is possible when we nurture connection. When we honor the needs of all, we receive the help we need. We are never alone.

The cauldrons of our Ancestors burbled with wild madder roots, and her companions – perhaps lichen and rowen berries, perhaps alum stone and myrobalan. The Ancestors stirred their carefully spun threads into the brew over a long slow fire until red emerged. Knowing the most important mystery, the one thing on the red path that is holy, specific, and uncompromisingly clear – that Madder Red is a gift given within community, not an individual conquest. Her Red is a reflection of our interdependence.

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If you seek guidance, enter. Breathe deeply, place your hands on your heart, and on your belly, connect to the way the Earth holds you, listen for the heart rhythm of the Ocean – the pulse of the world womb -the cauldron of all creation. Feel into the miracle of it all – that you are alive in this moment, in this place. Feel the truth that you are what all of the ancestral mothers labored for – you are the spark, breath, blood and bone of their dreams. You are their love made manifest. 

The answers you seek are waiting within you. Pick up the sticks, focus on your question. Let the sticks fall from your hands, the pattern will point to what you need to know. There is no right or wrong – the oracle speaks in many ways. Give thanks for what you receive. 

Artist Statement:
Iris Sullivan Daire has been weaving since the age of 7. She is an installation artist who delights in creating spaces where we can step out of the mundane into something deeper. Using botanical colors and fibers to evoke the memory of possible futures. 

She lives in Astoria, Oregon and spends much of her time making art with the children who live near the mouth of the mighty Columbia River. 

The madder handprint cloth was made during a session of the AWE afterschool art program with children ages 3-10. It references the red ochre hand prints found globally in ancient cave art. These sites most often show the hands of women and children.