About the work

Inspired in folk tales, the religious beliefs of afterlife and pagan rituals, these textiles are a golem of Mexican pop culture, catholic iconography, paganism, childhood television and Scottish landscapes. Presenting a scenery that zooms into dream-like scenarios, these images derive from nostalgia, motherhood, migration, my Mexican background and finally embracing Scotland as a home after giving birth for the first time.

The intuitive use of needle and thread produced grotesque and rough edges, using fabric remnants from Mexico and Scotland as a background for the first two, was an analogy for the background I am now weaving in here. The largest piece is made of tartan as a desire to deepen my understating on Scottish life, their idiosyncrasies and mannerisms, that year by year become easier to read and to interact with.

Just like the private and the public are permanently intertwined, my work evolves according to these circumstances, subconsciously offering the narrative of migration, motherhood and domestic life. This life period is defined by its constant negotiation between responsibilities. Finding portability in fabric and the and the immediacy of collage a healthy compromise between the two, this is a strong mixture of old ideas and new practices that enables a regeneration of my practice. Absorbing life as much as possible my works thrives on complexity, study of color, folk tales, cultural exchange and constant experimentation.

About the artist

Eva Paredes is a Mexican artist living in Scotland. She studied fine art in Mexico and has collaborated with Mexican and Scottish artists in mural community projects. Though much of her art is painting, after her pregnancy her work steered towards textile art – a personal and aesthetic reinvention. Her work looks for iconic relationships in cinema, television and folk stories, while communicating the emotional experience of living as part of a diaspora, which is to say between places.