Embrace / Abrazo, 2001
        Embrace / Abrazo, video essay, miniDV, 10 min, 2001 To watch the video, click here I incorporate the Khipu (ancient Andean mnemonic devices made of colored, knotted strings) as the central metaphor of this video, in order to talk about memory, migration, and colonial identities, particularly the construction of personal and collective history through the colonial reading of genealogies. That individual and collective histories are inextricably tied together is one of the overarching premises of my work. One of the aspects this video dwells on is the recurring Western tendency to locate textiles within a feminized domestic space. That this is a simplified, fabricated vision of history, is one of the research strands I weave into my video. The histories of textiles are as diverse as the gender roles – not just female – they represent. |