DANIELA EVA SWEET-COLL
This senior thesis installation was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Jamie Hulley Arts Foundation. I am endlessly grateful to Fred and Judy for their ongoing support, as well as to my thesis advisor and dear mentor Kate TenEyck for her unending wisdom, patience and gentle creative nudges. Video documentation by Pedro Bermudez features audio by Alisha Simmons and is available upon request.
entre [ˈɛ̃ntɾe]: between
telas [ˈtelas]: fabrics
entretelas (noun, feminine): matters or feelings most profound, private or deeply hidden.
Entretelas examines spiritual and physical intimacy by reimagining the Catholic confessional as a site for sacred connection free of hierarchy. Laser-cut shapes derived from anatomical diagrams of heart tissue and blood vessels wrap around the fabric walls of the two chambers. The manipulation of textile transparency and opacity creates screened moments of encounter and mutual perception between participants.
The following video was created for the art department faculty and student cohort in advance of my midyear thesis critique in November 2021. My work changed drastically after this point and my final installation focused more on themes of religiosity and the body, but this clip explains some of the iterative process that went into the making of Entretelas.
When I first decided I wanted to lasercut fabric, I sought out online resources to figure out how to achieve the effect I wanted. As far as I could see, no one was doing what I was trying to do, so I had to come up with my own techniques through painstaking testing, troubleshooting, and iteration. I have taken detailed notes on my process for lasercut textile work, and will gladly share them with anyone who might be interested. Just drop me a line and I'll send them your way.