CHILEAN TRADE

Contemporary fiber art cannot be separated from millennia of innovation at the loom, experimentation over the dye pot, or iteration through the stress tests of daily life at the seams. To position the work as novel renders invisible art and craft possibility by ordinary people in every time and every place.

As a Chilean-American fiber artist and researcher, I have used weaving as a metaphor and research technique to unravel transition, affect, and infrastructure after twentieth century political violence. Amidst the machinations of my own practice and attempts to emerge, the tapestry that warps and contains quotidian time has sometimes been washed against white walls, or ethnography, or whatever else.

Chilean Trade is an attempt to remember that a weaving is just that — a weaving. The studio sale recreates the feria artesanal (trading post) of Chile, where roving becomes language and more importantly, it remains roving. Wearable tapestry and embroidery embellish collected second hand clothing and fiber art pieces released for public sale, directly from my studio.

This winter, take home a piece of my studio practice — from my hands to yours.