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Tracy Jonsson-Laboy
Interdisciplinary Artist | Craft Researcher | Cultural Practitioner
b. 1985
EDUCATION
2023–2024 — Slöjd, Sustainability, and Textiles, Hemslöjden i Östergötland, Sweden
Certification in craft and circular textile arts with focus on heritage, natural materials, and textile circularity in Europe
2018 — Master of Science, Historic Preservation Roger Williams University, School of Art History, Architecture, and Historic Preservation
2012 — Bachelor of Science, Historic Preservation, Roger Williams University — Magna Cum Laude
ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Jonsson-Laboy works across textile, land-based systems, and material experimentation. Her practice examines fiber, soil, and clay as cultural and ecological infrastructures shaping identity, labor, and domestic systems.
Her current research is organized into three bodies of work:
- Scaling For Flax Sake: follows flax from field to fiber, where material is shaped as much by environment (social, ecological, economical) as by hand.
- Textile as Archive: cloth as a record—of labor, of memory, of what remains embedded in structure.
- Ecologies of Material Intelligence: exploration of knowledge held in process—through repetition, observation, and time.
Medium: historic textile techniques, new media, permaculture, ceramics, oil and acrylic, wood, cement and natural materials.
Instruments: piano, guitarr, vocals, loop pedal, music production digital audio workstation, archives, networks, ecologies.
EXHIBITION
2026 — Attempting to be Together, group show, Aunty’s House, Providence, RI
2025 — Sacred Self: Abstraction of the Queer Artist Experience through Collage & Fiber, group show The Avenue Concept, Providence, RI
2024 — Sammantvinnade, group show, Hemslöjden i Östergötland, Sweden
SELECTED PRACTICE & PROJECT-BASED RESEARCH
2026 — Scaling For Flax Sake, a practice-based research project on the craft-production method of creating linen (growing, harvesting, processing, spinning). Funded by Ocean Hour Farm, Newport, RI.
2025 — For Flax Sake Residency, Rose Island Light House ASsociation, Newport, RI, USA.
2025 — For Flax Sake, Cross-Atlantic research project on flax production. Funded by Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, US / Sweden collaboration.
2024 — Att Sticka en Skog, Participatory fiber intervention — Rejmyre, Sweden
2024 — Slöjd och Skrift, Writing + craft residency — Sweden
PUBLIC ART / COMMISSIONS
2022 — Tanbou, Sidewalk poetry, City of Providence Department of Art, Culture & Tourism
2021 — While You Wait Wildflower, public ecological intervention, Providence Street Coalition
2020 — Been Essential, Mural on the Greenway, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council
SOUND DESIGN AND ORIGINAL WORKS
2023 — Konstnärsnämnden Fonogramstöd, recipient of a grant to support the release of debut album Drone Dolores, Home Room, Sweden.
2021 — Writer, narrator, producer and sound designer: Kafka, Keats, and Kennedy Plaza for Pageant for Providence walking-tour, RI, USA.
2021 — Sound design; Moral Docs: A Transmedia Story that Reimagines Public Safety as Public Health. Work conducted as part of Drone Dolores Collaborative. Project led by Shey Rivera, RI USA.
PRODUCTION & COMMISSIONS
2021 — Featured Artists; Retina Creative Lab 8MM Film Festival. The Emergence Tapes. Writing, acting, producing, music and post production with Drone Dolores Collaborative, RI USA.
2021 — Performance of New Space, Old Noice at Decameron: Trajectories. Writing, performance, production, music and post production as part of Drone Dolores Collaborative, RI USA.
2021 — Videography Commission The Birdheaded Girl who Met the World at Luna Loba, Wilbury Group. Writing, directing, original music and post production as part of Drone Dolores Collaborative, RI USA.
2018 — BAFL Market, a Brunch, Art and Flea Market hosted four years in a row at various restaurants in Newport RI, 2013-2018. Production lead and program designer.
2018 —STAG, Street Access Galleries, a local-artist showcase of works at various cafe’s in Newport, RI promoting arts and providing access to markets. Production lead and program designer.
2018 —Art of the Arbor, an event in collaboration with the Newport Art Museum’s tree funeral with art market and commissioned performances at the Rotary Club, Newport RI, 2018.
2018 —Newport Live Sessions, six music videos of local artists, performed on porches throughout Newport RI, produced by Rich Ferri, Newport RI 2017-2018.
2018 —ReWind, storytelling and choreography at various churches in Newport, RI 2018.
2018 —Future: A visualization, an afrofuturist performance and panel event in collaboration with artists and the Newport Historical Society and First Congregational Church, Newport RI.
Scaling for flax sake
Researching flax production
A feasability project of the linen value chain, benefitting the Southern New England fibershed.
Supported by Ocean Hour Farm, in collaboration with Hawk and Handsaw Farm.
Sammantvinnade
an exhibit at hemslöjden i östergötland
Exhibiting the original textile piece Wise Words at the Hemslöjden i Östergötland gallery.
June 1st – June 31st 2024.
Storgatan 41, Linköping Sweden.
HOMESPUN
ARTIFACTS OF FOR FLAX SAKE AND EXPLORATION OF BLACK SPINNERS IN RI
A project exploring craft and resistance. The project Homespun is the artistic result of the practiced based research in the history and legacy of flax growing in New England, with a youth-participation component in the fall of 2024. Conducted with help from the Awesome Foundation, RI Chapter.
Att STicka En Skog
TO KNIT A FOREST
A craft intervention using public participation at the historic Grindstugan property, 2024, Rejmyre Sweden.
FOR FLAX SAKE
A PRACTICE BASED RESEARCH PROJECT
a cross-atlantic practice-based research project with a mission to capture the tacit knowledges of flax production for the benefit of young urban growers in Providence RI. Funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and produced in collaboration with Hawk and Handsaw Farm, 2024-2025, Rejmyre Sweden and RI USA.
