Kathleen Granados

Artist Statement

Through the reconfiguration of everyday materials such as dishtowels, fabric, and utensils, I think of the complexities of home: a space of comfort, a container of memory, and an entrapping myth. While the domestic objects I use are most often found or gathered from my personal space, the first source I return to, repeatedly, are my family archives. A specific crochet stitch, gestures from family photographs, the sound of a conversation from home movies, or a repeating calico pattern on my mother's quilts, all serve as raw materials in my practice.

Like photo albums or swatches of fabric, the records I reference are two-fold; they serve as entry points into the past, but also contain presumptions, fictions, and a persistent unknowing. My matrilineal education of textile crafts has been the foundation of my practice, a departure point in which to explore what can be repaired and rebuilt through teaching and ancestral knowledge.

Sourcing materials emblematic of loved ones has been a conduit in my work to exorcising themes of loss, repair, the tensions between personal and historical memory, as well as the political experiences of home. It is essential for me to work with materials that embody various timelines; like the unknown stories of these objects, histories (both familial and collective) are interconnected in ways that are often unseen and unarchived.