Flores de Vida

-> Steel, Caning, Beads, Wire

I reference the shape of a wooden box my grandpa built to house a half-scale statue of a saint. Instead of having a physical object inside, the shadows made from the light source above occupy the space, with their evidence on the ground. The metal eye embodies the divine within the experience of the everyday, placed on what can be the top of a table, or the seat of a stool.

I am using cane weaving to create spaces of Latin American religiosity, while also reclaiming the medium and making it specific to Nicaragua. Cane weaving came to the Americas in the 1650s through England. It was used to create furniture that could withstand the hot and humid climates, unlike the upholstery typical to Europe at the time. It took root in the United States, and evolved into wicker furniture, but in the rest of the Continent, the technique has remained the same for centuries. The weave pattern in Nicaragua has its own name, ojo de pollo, or chicken eye, since every other square makes an eye-like shape. Through interventions within the weave with wire, beads, and string, I use the weave as a gridded canvas to adorn with colors and materials familiar to churches in Nicaragua, building upon the naming of the weave to create a specifically Nicaraguan object.

This is part of my Art Senior Thesis project.

WELCOME!!!

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