PRESENTATION:

"FOLLOW THE THREAD: Textiles in Transition" opens with an introduction to the contemporary huipiles as featured in Bartula’s 2022 talk at OLL. Her book, “Whispers in the Thread,” was less than 3 months old when Covid hit, and throughout 2020-2021, she gravitated away from the huipil toward fabric collage and textile constructions. In this PowerPoint presentation, she opens a window into the transformative magic that happens when we let go of preconceived notions about our work, ourselves. Following thread, scraps, found objects, letting her hands guide her, setting her imagination free, she experienced an unexpected transition. The liberation has been surprising and inspiring, as it will be for anyone seeking to break free from their usual processes in art or in life itself.

Presenter:

Lena Bartula is a visual artist, writer, curator, gallerist, and workshop facilitator. Originally inspired by the huipil, she considers herself a recycle artist first, and a textile artist second. Her materials are vintage, recycled, donated fabrics and found objects – wrapped, stitched, glued, nailed, or enshrined. She is the author of “Whispers in the Thread” — a celebration of 15 years of alternative huipiles from 2003-2018. Full color pages and a bilingual text, plus stories, poems, legends, and writings by contributing authors make this a must-have book for textile lovers.