Sabrina Primelles

In my work, I explore opportunities to engage in respectful collaboration with members of Indigenous communities in Oaxaca and Campeche, Mexico. I combine artisanal traditions with new media to create textiles made on pedal looms and hand embroidery intertwined with fabrics bearing printed drawings made from mixed-media explorations and old family photographs. In this way I produce creating a complex map of personal histories. The title of my thesis project, OME, means “two” in Náhuatl, reflecting the project theme of duality—past and present, the mystical and the tangible. OME draws attention to the duality that was characteristic of Aztec culture and its relationship to myth, religion, and ritual, from the balance and meaning of color to life and death. In Mexico, it is believed that our deceased relatives can come back once a year to the world of the living to visit their families, but only if they are remembered by us, the living. Through design, I have created a way to remember and honor my family and culture and serve as a protector of my ancestors, my memories, my heritage, and its traditions.