B I O
Vanessa Argueta is originally from Miami, FL, and is now based in Livermore, CA.
Her work explores translation, transformation, personal memories, and the creation of fragmentary states of being through the reverence of shapes and colors found in Mola textiles made by the Kuna women native to Guna Yala, Panama. The mola is a product of acculturation that continues to exist because of the Kuna peoples’ tribal tradition. These textiles developed with the cotton cloth, needles, threads, and scissors acquired through trade from ships who came to their islands to barter for coconuts during the 19th century.
Her process involves searching for and using found and discarded fabrics, deconstructing them, and then reassembling them into new compositions using quilting and sewing techniques. The materials she uses have rich, vivid colors and bold graphic prints reminiscent of the Mola textiles which also consist of acquired commercial fabrics. The coming together of many different materials is an integral part of her work not only because the materials she works with come in limited quantities, but also because this process is reflective of her upbringing in Miami where she was surrounded by a variety of cultures and people living together.
In addition to sewing, her practice involves transferring her handmade works into digital programs where she further alters and reassembles them. She experiments with printing them onto different substrates including fabrics and paper. This process of transferring and translating different mediums onto one another obscures the materials’ original forms. She also uses this way of making to preserve, convey, and explore her experience as a first-generation American whose origins throughout time have and will continue to become less clear.