Textured Cities is a collection of mixed media artworks, combining drawing and embroidery techniques, exhibited at Instituto de Cultura de Baja California in Tijuana, Mexico in 2015.
Textured Cities is a story about us, humans, and the structures we build, how we shape our environment and what does it reflect about our behaviour and culture. Hand drawn city maps represent the countries and cities I lived in or spent time at on my frequent visits. Through these artworks I was thinking not only about the topographic features of each place, but also the movement and behaviour of people and the structures they create. I also brought in some feelings I had about each place.
This collection was created while living in Tijuana, Mexico, and perhaps for that reason I focused on Mexico a little bit more. Tijuana in particular is a very interesting example of human-made structures, it is located by the Pacific Ocean, but the city is very much concentrated at the border crossing, here it seems like the seaside is not a very important part of it, it is a pretty quiet residential area with some cafes on the shore for tourists. However, the city centre is right next to the border crossing, and this is where all the movement happens. Tijuana’s border crossing can get very busy at times, with up to 3 hours waiting time to cross from Mexico to the US. But the other way around the movement is fast. The border itself represents the relationship between these two countries, people living here in Tijuana often go to work and shop to the other side of the Wall. Then there are those who are waiting for their turn to go across, to be reunited with their families on the other side, and those fighting for a dream of a better life. It seems like there is so much energy concentrated here, so much tension waiting to be released.
