


Manilla (mariposas).
Earthenware, fique rope.
307.1 × 17.7 × 4.3 in / 735 cm x 60 x 10 cm
Made in Colombia in 2023-2025.
Manilla (mariposas) is a 25-foot tall beaded bracelet woven with fique rope. The motif repeated throughout is an abstraction of a penis and its reflection that also represents a butterfly, as indicated by the title. The male organ is present here in a coded and feminized way. In this work, the enlarged scale of the bracelet and its coded pattern transform an everyday object into a monument to quiet resistance.
This piece also alludes to the artisanal and symbolic
practices of weaving as acts of resistance, identity, and
communal connection. Beads have traditionally been used in
the creation of objects with ritual, aesthetic, and social value
in various communities of the region, and are associated
with the domestic and the feminine. In this work, the
enlarged scale of the bracelet and its coded pattern
transform an everyday object into a monument to resistance
and human bonds.

Stars Gallery.
Los Angeles, 2023.