Textile Artist
Bio/Statement
Patrizia Ferreira received a bachelor degree in textile design from the Institute of Industrial Design in Montevideo, Uruguay and a Master of Science degree in textile design for prints from Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University). She is an artist and educator working in Raleigh, North Carolina
As a fiber artist, my practice is rooted in the concept of scavenging, then salvaging fabric remnants, heirloom fabrics, abandoned, discarded materials and objects, and reassembling them in an ongoing cycle of deconstruction / construction.
I am a native of Uruguay, and as an immigrant adaptation is constant, as is the exercise of comparing economies, privileges, struggles, haves and have nots. This has led me to the study of three big themes that I feel are interconnected with each other, migration, the effects of climate change and the meaning of borders.
The employment of discarded materials, broken or otherwise neglected objects, plastic, textile, and marine debris, all in their cracked, worn-out form speak to me of the dispossessed, the outsider, the misfit. The language of junk is also a metaphor not only to what we leave behind, deemed unwanted, but also for people who are devalued, the often-invisible immigrant or the undocumented. Salvaging these random objects and materials becomes an allegory for redeeming the socially disenfranchised and a testimony to the cruelty of capricious and repressive socio-economic powers. This reconstructing effort is also a direct response to our society of consumerism and convenience that glorifies the concept of “new”. The selected, random objects, castoffs of our industrialized society, are reassembled to create objects that weave stories, that speak of the user, referencing and reverencing domesticity, our shared humanity, embracing the value of ritual and identity and honoring our capacity to make something beautiful out of the dirt and rubble.
Emulating nature, in the way a crack will be filled slowly and tediously by moss, pieces appear precarious and vulnerable, yet intricately and laboriously assembled, paying homage to the careful, loving constructions created by people in refugee camps, and impoverished areas around the world. The many threads, yarns and ropes employed to connect its many parts, a symbol to the interconnectedness of natural systems, human and otherwise.
In deepening my understanding of environmental stewardship, and climate change a goal is to spend part of my time in residence researching the subject of coastal conservation, and marine protection by reaching out to professionals who study these subjects to establish partnerships and create pieces that respond to concrete issues. My goal is to educate and inspire the community through my work.
Contact
Precarious Habitats
Precarious Habitats explores the multi-fold meanings of thresholds, borders, and fences both natural and man-made, the liminal space that exists between them, as well as implying divisions between, the rich and the poor, developed and underdeveloped, the rich north and the global south, and many others. Rooted in the ancestral practice of scavenging and salvaging, combining a hard heavy object, next to a light, supple piece of fabric, tying it, stitching it, using ropes and nets to wrap it together, imbuing the pieces with a sense of fragility. Pieces also appear like real life-size constructions that suggest walls and separations, barriers or shelters. In other pieces a tattered rug, has giant cut outs, making it appear like the hide of a giant animal, but its fleshy tone suggests it maybe human skin. Materials are assembled in the way of articulated hides, or skeins, hanging them with open wounds that reflect the ghost of the wearer or its inhabitant. Ropes and nets are created out of repurposed plastic and fabric to connect the many parts of a piece, to keep it together from falling apart. The wrapping effort a metaphor to what human intervention does in nature, nets are placed in coastal areas to protect them from further erosion. Is it to protect? Or is it to trap? The nets and ropes suggesting the immanent presence of water, its colossal force, the silence of its presence forever within us. We are 70% water too after all and it is from water we come into this world.
Pieces are all created painstakingly by hand. The mark left by the hand as a form of footprint that evokes links to the past, that speaks of our resilience and resourcefulness. The chosen methods for making, using hand stitching, hand wrapping, rope making, knotting; all these hand crafts being inevitably slow, tedious and inefficient; maybe seen as a form of resistance to the values imposed by our current modern society, always pushing us to perform more, faster and more efficiently.
In Search of the Lost Paradise
Smaller Works
In Search of the Lost Paradise
