Sarah Zapata employs labor-intensive processes such as handweaving, rope coiling, latch hooking, hand tufting, and sewing to explore intersecting theories of gender and ethnicity within pre-colonial histories and techniques. Making work with meditative, mechanical means, her current work deals with the multiple facets of her complex identity: a Texan living in Brooklyn, a lesbian raised as an evangelical Christian, a first generation American of Latin American descent, a contemporary artist inspired by ancient civilizations that challenges the history of craft as women’s work within the realm of art. By making work with meditative, mechanical means, Zapata produces time-consuming pieces that deal with imagery of the feminine, the fetishized, and the handmade.
Image: Sarah Zapata, To teach or to assume authority, 2019. Natural and synthetic fiber, handwoven cloth, wood. Installation view at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, NE. Image courtesy of the artist.