We are beings made of tissues. It is through these tissues that we are able to breathe, walk, live. Likewise, they take on different forms according to each person’s life experience; everything lived leaves an imprint, tissues have memory and adopt specific shapes—they make us legible to others. Words are unnecessary; all the information is exposed for those who know how or wish to read it. We are a bundle of emotions reflected in one way or another not only in the tissues of our bodies, but also in the warp and weft of the things we create.

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I am interested in representing tissue as a process that reflects a personal (emotional and physical) need to stitch, to construct these three-dimensional volumes that speak of periods of transformation, contact, and reconstruction of myself. I use felt because it is a material with its own structure and character, capable of adopting forms as I work with it. In this way, it allows me to create these kinds of beings that grow on their own or attach themselves to a foreign body.

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All of them are created slowly, through the union of small elements. The way they take shape—circle by circle, one by one, over a prolonged period of time, in silence—functions as a mantra. I find inspiration in plant life. I try to draw parallels between our complex process of internalizing external events and the way plants adapt to different environments and situations. Both processes, I believe, are similar in certain ways.

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I am interested in tissue as an element that speaks for itself, capable of generating knots, tensions, sagging—ultimately, all kinds of sensations that transmit emotion—while also offering infinite possibilities for physical manifestation.

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Karen Macher
June 2016