Bringing together textile, sculptural, and text-based works, this exhibition considers weaving as an embodied practice through which acts of making become gestures of memory, inherited knowledge, and self-exploration.
Both artists engage with family histories and inherited cultural narratives. Cleave incorporates pine needles and rice grains into their woven sculptures—everyday materials with cultural significance across East Asia. Vega as Floodwater and Sieve reimagine the folktale of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, known in Japan as Hikoboshi, a mortal man, and Orihime, a celestial deity. The two fell in love but were separated by the Milky Way. Using organic materials that warp and break, Cleave assembles delicate sculptures held together through a meticulous and laborious process.
Through his own interest in weaving, Jonathan Alfaro stumbled upon his grandfather’s weaving practice under Spanish colonialism. In Y Mis Huesos se Sienten Viejos,he examines the complex relationship between family lineage and self-identity. In addition to working with traditional weaving techniques, Alfaro developed techniques to deconstruct linen fabrics, creating intricate patterns that accentuate the texture of the material, reconstructing them into something new and beautiful.
Through their respective experimentation with the technique and materiality of weaving, Alfaro’s and Cleave’s works reimagine the medium’s form and dimensionality.
