Jennie Frederick

My current work utilizes techniques I observed in the Mexican papermaking village of San Pablito. I am interested in the way textile structures are made and used--through repetition, line, texture, and symbols (particularly circles)--to mark time and events.

Using mulberry, I create light, delicate, open-work structures. No doubt this work holds influences, mentally recorded, from my observations and research during six years documenting indigenous fiber techniques: lacy Otomi amate; Lacandon hu'un, with its symbolic circular motifs; Ecuadorian Cuenca paños, with their intricately knotted cabuya fiber; shigra making from pita fiber in the Amazonian jungle; and Chancay textiles, delicately woven and embroidered.

These historical references all have in common the use of natural fibers in multiple-element construction. The structures are imbued with rich surfaces that become subtle and elegant remnants of a time, an event, a person, an action, or a place.