IN THE BELLY OF THE EARTH (ARTWORK)

In January 2022, I was in São Paulo for a residency. It was the first time in a long time I didn’t have a loom. So I had to improvise one, made of nails around a small frame. I bought thread and beads from shops in the area I was living. I worked with whatever I could find, which was limited but forced me to incorporate materials I had never considered. I enjoyed improvising like that; it suited the city. It also suited my concern: modesty. Amidst the acceleration and consumption of everyday life, I was looking for ways to make small, humble tapestries.

As I criss-crossed São Paulo, I couldn’t help but think about home. The contrasts were striking: skyward were the apartments of the privileged and beneath them, on the pavement, in cardboard boxes, underneath bridges, the precarious dwellings of the homeless.

I made thirty works that consider ideas of home. They represent tents, churches, windows, chairs, and bags—and hope. Because hope is everywhere. On each is embroidered “sans chance pas de hasard pas de chance sans hasard pas de hazard sans chance,” which about the homes we yearn for.