Dialogues (Rilke, Anzaldúa, de Beauvoir)
2021 • Gallery Maronié, Kyoto
monofilament, ink, vinyl
In his essay Texto Legible Y Texto Visible, Salvador Elizondo explains that there is a big difference between writing and reading something, or between speaking and listening. Reading and listening are always an act of interpretation.
As I explore encrypted and ambiguous language as a motif, transparency is important as both a material and an idea. A transparent or semi-transparent surface is a permeable boundary. The potential for understanding is there, but not always access or answers. Amongst the cultivated uncertainty and experimental materials, the reliable structure of weaving provides some relief of order.
Each of these tapestries is a dialogue between my original pictographs and text from one of three writers: Rainer Maria Rilke, Gloria Anzaldúa, or Simone de Beauvoir. All three encourage—to quote Anzaldúa—“a tolerance for ambiguity.”
“The notion of ambiguity must not be confused with that of absurdity.”