molo, the Vancouver-based sustainable innovators known for their use of FSC-certified kraft paper in their furniture and softwall designs, is pleased to support Jaad Kuujus–Meghann O’Brien's current solo exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Recently opened in early December and running through March 29, 2026, “Jaad Kuujus: Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother” is an exhibition that honours and extends the ancient structures of Northwest Coast weaving practice through contemporary technologies.
Weaving is connected to creation—fingers flowing with the living energy of the cedar or animal wool, with the forest that sheltered them, with the land that nourished them, and with the traditional knowledge passed down by elders and master weavers.
Revisiting handwoven ceremonial regalia through digitally rendered reproductions and contemporary Jacquard looms, the artist’s practice dances backward and forward through time, opening up further connections to the future, to diverse peoples, and new experiences. The pieces encourage guests to consider lineage and ancestry, whether those represented directly in the exhibition or their own.
The exhibition showcases the artist’s early works and thinking, including a series of hand-typed journals and a collection of Repetto ballet flat boxes complete with pink tissue paper, in which she stores miniature baskets. It continues through her experience learning to weave, the process of creating “Sky Blanket,” and how it was reimagined and remodelled through 3D rendering and digital weaving, culminating with a new series of works, “The Burden of Being an Echo.” A petal pink textile softwall, designed by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen for molo, is used in the exhibition as a practical division and backdrop, but also as an expanded metaphor for the Repetto boxes and the vertical weave of the baskets and robes. Arranged in a large circle, the shape is a welcoming one which promotes connectivity, nurture, and matriarchal lineage, softening the traditional cube of a gallery and drawing guests together to experience the works. Like the weavings, softwall displays its internal structure as both form, function, and strength—an interlocking lattice that both shapes and defines.
Forsythe and MacAllen, Jaad Kuujus-Meghann O’Brien draw connections between softwall and woven room dividers used by earlier Northwest Coast societies. These woven walls were used to create privacy while maintaining a certain openness that is typically limited by traditional walls. They held people together, rather than concealing and creating distrust. Forsythe and MacAllen experienced similar processes for transformational and emotional space making while visiting and researching coastal communities in Colombia as part of their graduate work. These early discoveries influenced their own design thinking and development of the soft collection.
Co-curated by Jaad Kuujus–Meghann O’Brien, Kate Hennessy, and Hannah Turner, the exhibition features naaxiin (Chilkat) weavings and their digital translations. The exhibition is a space of reflection on themes of repetition, regeneration, and return.
The exhibition runs through March 29, 2026 at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.
Original article