California Fibers is pleased to present our newest member, Mônica Lóss.
Mônica presenting her work at a recent California Fibers’ meeting.
Mônica writes, “My artistic practice begins with textiles and a sensitive attention to materials that already exist in the world, guided by the poetics of transformation and by traces that carry memory. I believe my practice aligns with the work of California Fibers’ members, whose research reflects depth, experimentation, and an expanded understanding of fiber as a contemporary language.”
Work presented at a recent California Fibers’ meeting.
In her own words: “I spin time, unravel memory, weave fictional territories, embroider organs for imagined bodies, and stitch inner landscapes as practices of reinvention and resilience. I understand art as a way of producing knowledge, a way of observing the world as a vast network of interconnections.”
Expanded Interior II
Lóss’ research begins with the use of textile materials, accessories, packaging, and household objects that are donated, discarded, or found in thrift stores and garage sales. Through weaving, sewing, crochet, and embroidery, she creates sensory and wearable objects that interact with space and unfold into soft sculptures, photographs, performances, videos, and installations. Lóss’ use of rejected materials highlights urgent issues related to consumption, accumulation, luxury, and status, prompting reflection on what society considers valuable and what is relegated to irrelevance. It also questions the responsibility inherent in the act of consuming and in how we deal with what no longer serves us.
Despite the Fragility
Lóss’ work develops through simultaneous projects and series that guide her toward both collective memory as symbolic heritage and individual memory as a place where experiences, dreams, and traumas become spaces for processing and naming loss. She investigates the ritualistic dimension of handcraft practices, understanding them as ancestral forms of knowledge and, at the same time, futuristic practices committed to sustainability and continuity.
Nest
Lóss navigates the genealogy of identities, seeking intersections between past, present, and future. This process begins with a confrontation with her personal history and her place of origin in southern Brazil. Colonization and immigration experiences are marks that accompany her and resonate in her positioning as a Latin Brazilian artist in the North American context.
Glu Glu
Lóss creates fictions about territories, landscapes, bodies, and other natures that emerge from the feeling of non-belonging triggered by migratory processes, imagining other worlds and spaces of resistance. Her practice is nourished by the habit of collecting insignificances, dispossessions, and accumulations, both her own and those of others, driven by an interest in the memory embedded in materials and in the possibilities of altering the fate of things, reflecting on passage, permanence, and the transformative potential of these experiences.
One of Mônica’s pieces found in downtown San Diego’s Hey Books! book store during the recent San Diego Book Crawl.
We look forward to seeing Mônica’s work in future California Fibers’ exhibits!
Mônica at the opening of a 2-person show including her work at the Oceanside Museum of Art.