Abstracts Maps and Languages
Part of the collection Talk To Me / Háblame. This embroidery involves mapping that represents the migration of the women in my family from Colombia to Chicago. Four generations of my family from my mom’s side: my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother and I have migrated from the hot weather of Sahagun, to the Island of San Andrés in the Atlantic Ocean, to the middle of the country (the capital of Colombia, Bogotá), to one of the largest cities in the USA, Chicago. The locations of these places are represented by the placement of each set of lips on the embroidery. The lines in the fabric trace the distance and time of our journeys. Each set of lips represents a syllable or a vowel of the word 'family' in Spanish, 'familia'. The title Fah-mee-li-ah is spelled phonetically as it’s pronounced in Spanish so that English speakers can pronounce it perfectly.