“Tejidos”
Video, with Sound,
Objects:
Terracotta
Hernia Pot Intestine Collar 6 3/4x8 1/5 in, Intestine Collar Pot 7 1/3x6 1/2 in, Bowl 3 1/4x7 1/4 in, Bowl 3 x 6 3/4 in, Hernia Vase 5x5 1/4 in , Small Tray (Twisted Coil Base) 1 1/2x6 1/2 in, Hernia Planter 7 3/4x 8 in
Plastic Fiber Baskets
Small Yellow Basket 3 1/4x5 1/4 in, , Small Red Basket 2 3/8x5 1/2 in , Purple Basket 3x7 1/2 in , Green Basket 5 1/2x9 in, Yellow Basket (shorter) 2 1/2x10 in, Yellow Basket (taller) 3 1/2 x 10 1/2 in, Black Basket 2 3/4 x 11 1/2 in
Fiber Materials
Petate, Peppers, Pumpkin Seeds, Gem Corn, Dried Zinnias, 2 Cloth Napkins, Eucaplyptus, Blue Bag, Red Bag, Purple Beans
Statement
Archaeologists recently found a complete woven basket from the Neolithic era in a desert cave. This rare Neolithic basket survived by being buried in three feet of soil and because of the high temperatures and dry conditions of the area. Traditionally made of natural fibers that decay over time, baskets like these and their patterns have more commonly survived through the passing of that knowledge from elders’ hands to younger weavers. Mixtec basket weavers in Oaxaca, Mexico prepare their weaving materials through a series of careful cuts made into palm fronds which leave them with thin strands used to create baskets. Within the last couple of decades, vibrantly dyed plastic “palm” has become popular within these weaving communities. The plastic grants a permanence to the patterns of these baskets.
This project comes from my long-standing effort to learn about my parents’ Mixtec culture; this time through their gardening practices. I turn to the garden as a source of ancestral knowledge — a knowledge that provides nourishment in many forms. Gardens reflect self-sustainability, and the indisputable connection indigenous people have to land. These works reflect the knowledge my parents have shared from their homeland San Juan Mixtepec in Oaxaca, Mexico. I offer them as a reflection and record of my on-going process of learning this ancestral knowledge.
Bio
Lorena Cruz Santiago is a Mexican-American artist from Northern California currently based in Detroit, Michigan. She received her BFA in Photography from Sonoma State University in 2016 and her MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2019. Cruz Santiago has attended residencies like ACRE (Steuben, WI), Tesselate (Pontiac, MI), and most recently Pocoapoco Residency in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, MX. Her work has been included in shows at El Comalito Collective (Vallejo, CA), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), and in ArtMile Detroit 2020. Through an interdisciplinary practice that includes photography, video, and printmaking her work illustrates post-colonial themes of migration and assimilation.
Interloper is a Seattle based curatorial initiative by Tiffany Danielle Elliott and we are working together to share resources, attention and artists to bring more than one piece of their work to Seattle. We have scheduled our exhibitions in both locations to overlap.
