Mónica Avayou
Statement
For Mónica Avayou, the process of creation is the fulfillment of an instinctive need to express herself, through a sensual perception of the world that is embodied in her unique fabrics.
From the twisting of the material in an exhaustive struggle to find its shape, the curves become visible and, in complicity with the folds they create, they hide and blur what is still to be discovered in a female body. In this way, Monica accompanies matter that expands beyond its limits, helping it to emerge from anonymity.
The love inherited from her mother for fibers and yarn has led her to intervene in any kind of matter, diverting its destiny. They never end up being what they "should be".
Bio
Monica Avayou was born in Mexico in 1979. Her career as a textile artist has been characterized by exploring various techniques and themes, such as embroidery and weaving, allowing her to create large-scale and complex works.
In 2018, she emigrated to the United States, where her artistic work began to stand out significantly, establishing herself as a full-time artist.
One of the most distinctive aspects of her work is the innovative use of recycled plastic bags wrapped in fiber, a technique that has elevated her art to an artistic level and has become her personal hallmark. This combination of contrasting materials reflects her concern for the environment and her interest in reusing everyday objects.
Monica Avayou has also ventured into relational art, collaborating with communities in Mexico on artistic-environmental projects that have enriched her artistic perspective and allowed her to explore themes such as identity, sustainability, and the relationship between humans and their environment.
In addition to her commitment to environmental art, Avayou uses her work to reflect themes related to the female experience, the struggle for equality, and the reconstruction of emotional and physical wounds.
Photo Gallery
Creative Process
Process 1
... From the corpse’s flowers grow...as Anthony and the Johnson's song prays...
Jute: inert fiber, colorless, without shine. Through an immersive dance, the yarn comes to life covering the aridity of the jute, saves it from death with vivid colors and diverse textures; with life, with its own life”.
Since I was very young, I had a phobia to snakes and in a creative, unconscious process, I focused on wrapping strings. When finished, its shape resembles of snakes, making a kind of totemic object. I master it in the creation, I control it in reality.
Working with death means working with life, just as time is to work transformation...
Process 2
The word recycle comes from the Greek and is composed of the prefix re-, which means again", "reiterate", and the noun kyklos (κύκλος), which, in English, is translated as "cycle". Recycling is then the act of inserting new elements or resources already used into a new circle or life cycle. It has to do with taking advantage of the waste we produce either to reuse it, transform it into new products or give it a new use, different from the one for which it was conceived.
For Mónica Avayou, the process of creation is the fulfillment of an instinctive need to express herself, through a sensual perception of the world that is embodied in her unique fabrics
Hundreds of plastic bags whose fate was death and oblivion, having been thrown into the sea and smothering thousands of species, now serves as the skeleton of the artist's pieces. Through a slow and conscious dance, she wraps the bags until they become a new object, giving them life and consistency, through an exquisite form and an unprecedented function. From simple waste or mortal food to the support of multiple knots and yarns that, when intertwined, generate life.
The recycling of these supermarket bags represents a quest to resignify the woman, the housewife. The latter, also asphyxiated by an imposed destiny, she does not claim to turn her back on the supermarket, but rather slips through the cracks of imperative roles and rigid identities, to become rope, thread, bag, in a delicate and ungraspable swaying of incalculable movements and sensual creations.
Under their different forms, the lined plastic bags become a framework of textures, colors and curves that, intertwined, give birth to magnificent shapes.
From the twisting of the material in an exhaustive struggle to find its shape, the curves become visible and, in complicity with the folds they create, they hide and blur what is still to be discovered in a female body. In this way, Monica accompanies matter that expands beyond its limits, helping it to emerge from anonymity.
The love inherited from her mother for fibers and yarn has led her to intervene in any kind of matter, diverting its destiny. They never end up being what they "should be".
