Amalia Galdona Broche

The Scream (2018)
textile and pins
40 x 20 x 20 in.

Originally from Santa Clara, Cuba, my family moved to the US in my adolescence, where I have lived for the past decade. Living in a cultural in-between, I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture and how our surroundings shape character and identity. Through the process of collecting, tearing, breaking, joining, weaving, knotting and assembling, I mimic my journey through life, constantly adapting to the experiences, places and people around me.

I use the cyanotype photo process to capture and present, in an abstracted manner, the way in which our environment imprints onto our identity. Currently, I explore figures through form, material and surface treatment. The assemblage of woven structures with or created with discarded textiles creates a rich surface texture that is sometimes further altered through photo processes. By referencing the syncretizing of religious and cultural beliefs, as well as Spanish and Afro-Cuban culture in my work, I deal with the intricacies of the building and development of my own character as a product of colonization and appropriation. I find this creative process to be a meditative dance of making and building, using art and craft and their history to continue a conversation about otherness, feminism and the global south. (KY)

© Amalia Galdona Broche