Kira Dominguez Hultgren USA, b. 1980
Stay in Your Lane, 2024
Linen, kudzu, silk, lurex thread, mohair, wool, cotton; agar agar, sodium alginate, gelatin bioplastics; loom bars and other hardware
126 x 50 x 2 in
320 x 127 x 5.1 cm
320 x 127 x 5.1 cm
Copyright The Artist
Short project statement Culture jamming, cultural composites, promiscuous experimentation with colors and materials all too unruly to stay divided by fifths, by thirds, by fourths. These woven skins track environmental...
Short project statement
Culture jamming, cultural composites, promiscuous experimentation with colors and materials all too unruly to stay divided by fifths, by thirds, by fourths. These woven skins track environmental conditions (mostly humidity) in a cycle of absorption and expulsion.
Longer project statement
In my most recent work, I am experimenting with creating bioplastics from water mixed with alginates, spirulina, turmeric, glycerin, gelatins, and kombuchas, testing the possibilities for weaving with and into them. I am particularly intrigued how bioplastics can show adaptive life cycles: measuring and responding to the humidity in an environment; showing how skins and fabrics hold and sweat water; and metaphorically, how bodies survive through assimilation and repulsion of the environment around them. In the words of San Francisco State University American Indian Studies professor Joanne Barker, “I turn to water as a mode of analysis, a water that (in)forms, a water that instructs…water as a relative, as part of a living network of interdependent relationships and deep responsibilities.” With this piece, Stay in Your Lane, I am thinking alongside the water, alongside the oceans, as they erode land, cross borders, and destabilize edges. When I stand on the shore, I stand between Asia and North America, between Mexico and India. I stand between the continents of my grandmothers’ hands. Weaving with bioplastics positions me in these generational histories, responsive ecologies, and composite cultures.
Culture jamming, cultural composites, promiscuous experimentation with colors and materials all too unruly to stay divided by fifths, by thirds, by fourths. These woven skins track environmental conditions (mostly humidity) in a cycle of absorption and expulsion.
Longer project statement
In my most recent work, I am experimenting with creating bioplastics from water mixed with alginates, spirulina, turmeric, glycerin, gelatins, and kombuchas, testing the possibilities for weaving with and into them. I am particularly intrigued how bioplastics can show adaptive life cycles: measuring and responding to the humidity in an environment; showing how skins and fabrics hold and sweat water; and metaphorically, how bodies survive through assimilation and repulsion of the environment around them. In the words of San Francisco State University American Indian Studies professor Joanne Barker, “I turn to water as a mode of analysis, a water that (in)forms, a water that instructs…water as a relative, as part of a living network of interdependent relationships and deep responsibilities.” With this piece, Stay in Your Lane, I am thinking alongside the water, alongside the oceans, as they erode land, cross borders, and destabilize edges. When I stand on the shore, I stand between Asia and North America, between Mexico and India. I stand between the continents of my grandmothers’ hands. Weaving with bioplastics positions me in these generational histories, responsive ecologies, and composite cultures.
