2025
BFA Exhibition as part of Throughline

I am intrinsically inspired by indigenous South American textiles, this work stems from pre-columbian tradition of quipus, a textile work made of chords and knots, used for accounting, recordkeeping, and storytelling in the Andes. One prominent use of the quipu involved using chords made from cameloid fiber to inventory the animals. I began exploring if, for example, llama fiber was used to account for llamas, what fiber would I use to account for myself? Material Identity is my attempt to understand the self through the medium of fiber and materiality. Through the historical context of the quipu, I incorporate my indigenous Andean heritage into my life and identity as a first gen US American. Using contemporary fibers from my life in the ancient form of quipu, I allow my ancestry and my present experience to coexist in the same space. I use this to address all aspects of my identity including queerness, indigeneity, trans experience, masculinity, and domesticity.