WaveMaker Grantees: Aurora Molina & Alina Rodriguez
Written by Alina Rodriguez and Aurora Molina. All images courtesy of the artists.
Interview with the Artists
Tell us about your WaveMaker project:
Quilting Stories, Narrating Stories Through Their Eyes is a long-haul project engaged in distilling the essence of the immigrant experience as seen through the eyes of children and the prism of textile art. Using the personal narratives of children of immigration, this project aims to revitalize and increase the visibility of traditional Haitian Drapo Vodou (ceremonial hand sequined and beaded flags unique to Haiti). The project was fully funded through the WaveMaker Grants, an Andy Warhol Foundation regional re-granting program administered by Miami-based nonprofit Locust Projects for 2019.
"Men anpil, chay pa lou” (Many hands make the load lighter). This Haitian proverb is as intrinsic to Haitian culture as it is to American culture, particularly in this time of crisis. Quilting Stories is the product of a year long arts in education collaboration between artists Aurora Molina, Alina Rodriguez, the Little Haiti Cultural Center (LHCC), Pascale Theard from Pascale Theard Creations in Port-au-Prince, commissioned Haitian artisans and In-kind donors: Ocean Bank Educational Materials (OBEM), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCANomi) in North Miami, and Peace, Love, Art, Yoga Studio.
The project sprang from Aurora Molina’s ongoing artistic production, investigation of traditional fibers and collaboration with artists and artisans from Thailand, Mexico, India, and Indonesia since 2011. In 2018, with support from Oolite Arts, Creator Awards, Molina is joined by artist/art educator Alina Rodriguez for "Retra-Tablos”.
Everything takes time; "Piti piti zwazo fè nich li" and Quilting Stories, Narrating Through Their Eyes involved many in our community, spilled over to Haiti, and will eventually culminate with an exhibit at the Little Haiti Cultural Center.
"If immigrant children are well served today, they will become important contributors to the future well-being of this country” Harvard
Tell us what you're most excited about as a result of this project?
For us, it is finally seeing the dazzling artisans’ accurate beaded interpretation of the children’s drawings. The artisans analyzed every detail in the drawings and truthfully embroidered the designs into brilliant threaded mosaics to form a unique drapò (beaded flag). They exercised a type of telepathy in handling the direction of the beads and sequins to the rhythm of the marker strokes made by the children.
This is a true collaboration between the children and the artisans. What makes it great is the intercultural exchange the artwork generates. Without ever meeting, the children and artisans formed a bond that traveled 875 miles across the ocean.
The journey of their ideas, the melding of cultures with their distinct myths and legends reveal the wisdom and courage of the artists and their voyaging souls.
Has it inspired new work, collaborations, direction?
Just as sequin overlaps each other when making a drapò, we plan to continue our joint venture. Expanding the project to different countries and unearthing that commonality found in textiles that intersects and connects us all. Journeying next to Peru in search of ancient traditions in textiles that play such an important role in contemporary art. Unveiling and recuperating the memory of lost threads in every country and with every textile tradition.
We are currently launching Fiber Artists-Miami Association, FAMA, a new initiative that we feel could play a role in connecting a vast community of likeminded creators and practitioners. Bridging the intersection between craft and high art, reconciling tradition and innovation that drives twenty-first-century art and design.
Has it brought new opportunities for expanding it through other grants or exhibitions? What, where, and when?
We are in conversation with Edouard Duval-Carrié and Marie Vickles who are co-curating Sacred Diagrams: Haitian Vodou Flags. This exhibition examines the role of Vodou flags and flag makers within Haiti’s dynamic visual culture. The traveling exhibition plans to come to the Little Haiti Cultural Center. Duval-Carrié and Vickles generously expressed a willingness to include our finished drapò pieces in their exhibition. The addition of our project to the show will inject a unique interpretation of Vodou flags and will share space with renowned artists as Clotaire Bazile, Myrlande Constant, Mireille Delice Delisme, Silva Joseph, Dubreus Lherisson, Edgar Jean Louis, Antoine Oleyant, Yves Telemaque, and George Valris.
Watch video documentation of Quilting Stories, Narrating Stories Through Their Eyes below:
Check out the artists’ virtual initiative: Threading Thoughts, a series of socially engaged online workshops in fibers that use mindfulness-based approaches, needle, thread, and art interventions that may alleviate symptoms of general anxiety in people of all ages and gender.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Aurora Molina was born in La Havana, Cuba, in 1984. She emigrated to the United States at the age of sixteen, where she opted to pursue an education in art. Molina received her Associates of Arts in Visual Arts from Miami Dade College, a Bachelors in Fine Arts specializing in Mixed Media from Florida International University and Master Degree in Contemporary Art at the Universidad Europea de Madrid completed in 2009. She currently resides in Miami, Florida, where she works as a full time artist.
Alina Rodriguez is a Miami based artist, art/ museum educator/ Curriculum Support Specialist for Miami-Dade County Public Schools Visual Arts Department. She has intersected her 30 year teaching profession to embrace all her passions: textiles, visual arts, curatorial work, arts education for underserved students and students with disabilities.
Aurora Molina and Alina Rodriguez received a Cycle 5 WaveMaker Grant in 2019. Since 2015, WaveMaker Grants have awarded $399,000 in grants to 77 Miami’s most visionary artists, collectives, and curators.
WaveMaker Grants at Locust Projects is made possible by support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and is part of the Warhol Foundation's Regional Regranting Program. Part of a national network of Warhol-initiated regranting programs, WaveMaker Grants is the first in the southeast. For more information about the Warhol Foundation's Regional Regranting Program, please click here.