I am a Colombian American artist based in Memphis, TN. My project-based work celebrates culture and migration, drawing on my experiences as an immigrant. While my practice encompasses fiber, video, performance, and installation, this statement focuses on my fiber work, specifically my embroidered tapestries.
Fiber arts is a generational tradition in my Colombian family. I learned stitching from my grandmothers, who learned from their mothers, and from my aunts. One aunt, Pupi, a single mother, owned a uniform sewing shop where my grandmother and I often helped. This familial connection made stitching, sewing, and embroidering a natural and vibrant process within my artistic practice.
Through using stitching as drawing and multiple fibers processes, I explore the stories of rescued animals and native plants from South and Central America that have flourished in the American South, reflecting on immigration and the vulnerable experience of “Otherness.” Using stitches, I draw and trace the distance and time of my family’s and my own migratory journeys. My fiber work processes the concept of a hybrid identity, navigating the delicate gap between not quite being American and not entirely being Colombian.
Video Performances: Estallido Social Entre Bola Y Maile
