Study of Map II, III, IV, V

Study of Map II, III, IV, V

Deconstructing and Reconstructing: The Art of Garments and Cartography

In her work, she deconstructs garments by cutting, piecing, sewing, or weaving, reconstructing her personal story with these materials. She states, "In the cartography, I create imaginary maps to build roads, forming new ways of contact, seeing, and feeling." Her aim is to establish a new form of communication through the transformation of garments that hold stories within their fibers, honoring her ancestral inherited path even though she was born to immigrants.

Her work is about recognizing the value of an art form on the brink of vanishing. In the Estudio de mapa (Study of Map) series, Tenenbaum uses recycled fabric, metallic thread, embroidered cut edges, and various patches to create her pieces.

Study of Map III
Lake Atitlan
2021
52 cm x 70 cm

Study of Map V
Coffee Plantations
2021
52 cm x 70 cm

Study of Map IV
Harvest
2021
52 cm x 70 cm

Study of Map II
Sacatepequez Valley
2021
52 cm x 70 cm

“Using repurposed Indigenous dress from the ancestral Mayan tradition is my medium. I bring together garments from all around the country to recreate images and sensations that are purely from our Mesoamerican region. The collecting of garments gives me an extensive color range where I recollect decades of historical references (...). Nature nurtures my creativity to reconstruct from my memory bank images which are embedded in my unconscious archive." Sylvia Tenenbaum

Sylvia Tenenbaum