Chicago Arpillera (Story Cloth) Project
In many cultures throughout history, story cloth has empowered communities by giving them individual and collective voices. Histories are imbedded in fiber practices and communities come together through cloth. Participants learn and incorporate various fiber techniques to tell a story from their community.
This project is inspired by the Chilean arpilleras. Arpilleras are brightly-colored patchwork pictures stitched onto cloth which chronicle the life of the poor and oppressed in Chile in the 1970s and 1980s during the totalitarian military regime of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. Arpilleras served to document and denounce oppression in a country where all normal channels of free expression were closed. To the women, making arpilleras was a way to share their sorrows and concerns with each other, and eventually the world. Stitching together is a quiet, but very powerful act of resistance and one that is very significant to those who feel powerless or voiceless in this world. It is community building.
Intersect Art Space 2.0 (mana contemporary-september 2021-2024)
Intersect’s mission is to support, encourage and nurture emerging artists working in time-based media (sound, performance, moving-image and new media) by providing performance and exhibition opportunities, space for experimentation and resources to expand their practice. Intersect aims to help diversity the fields of experimental sound and new media by reaching out to ALAANA, queer, female and artists with disabilities and to challenge art-world gatekeeping through inclusive and accommodating programming. We feel experimentation in front of an audience is key to a performance artist’s practice and we seek out artists who haven’t had the opportunity to exhibit work publicly and offer the opportunity to do so.
Intersect Art Space 1.0 (Pilsen)
Free fiber classes for the community from October 2018 to October 2020.
