Sheila Hicks is an artist historically recognized as a significant innovator of the textile medium and someone who has pursued it as a “high art” since the 1950s. Her projects are informed by the diverse textile traditions she has studied in various parts of the world, beginning with the period she lived in Mexico, from 1959 to 1964, where she was invited to teach at the National Autonomous University of Mexico by Mathias Goeritz. Other sites of research included Morocco in the 1970s, as well as Chile, Sweden, India, and South Africa during subsequent decades. Her consistently experimental approach is evident in this recent piece, which is formed using a circular wooded base, onto which she has layered cloud-like cotton stuffing, which has been flattened and held in place by layers of interlaced yarn, string and threads made from synthetic fibers.

Planetary references appear in this work entitled, Hyperion. It refers to the god in Greek mythology who fathered the sun (Helios) and the moon (Selene). The circular format of this textile-based work also references these planets, as do the red, oranges and blue fiber materials used.