“ARCANUM” Cyber Gallery
Sarah Zapata: An instep along the self edge
An instep along the self edge
Sarah Zapata, constructed by gabbah baya and Natalie Valcourt, Cyber Room, 2020.
Through a practice of textiles and foot erotica, Sarah Zapata (Capricorn) engages elements of control and performativity to create immersive fantasies. Employing labor-intensive processes such as handweaving, rope coiling, latch hooking, and sewing, Zapata creates dynamic sculptural environments that examine the transformative power of textiles produced by women for male-dominated, ritual spaces and use. Zapata's digital dreamscape is an intimate setting, whose mood is dependent on the player. Her cyber installation is a mini-gallery, showcasing photographs of her embroidered tapestries.
Sarah Zapata organized two time-based events for “ARCANUM.” On December 3, 2020, Queer|Art|Mentorship Literature Fellows Raja Feather Kelly, María José Maldonado, and Sarah Zapata held “Lit Chat!”, an event over Zoom featuring intimate portraits of each writer, their work and their process (recorded here). On December 17, 2020, Zapata hosts a digital studio visit and conversation exploring her work and writing she has been developing throughout the past year (RSVP here).
The artworks in this gallery can be viewed within a playable video game, an immerse dreamscape constructed by gabbah baya and Natalie Valcourt, with an audio score by HiFadility.
Please note that this game is not compatible with Safari, or mobile phones. It is best played on a desktop (Mac or PC) using Chrome or Firefox.
ABOUT SARAH ZAPATA
Image by Lola Flash for the 2019 Queer|Art Community Portrait Project
Sarah Zapata makes work with labor-intensive processes such as handweaving, rope coiling, latch hooking, and sewing by intersecting theories of gender and ethnicity with 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, an artist challenging the history of craft as “women’s work” within the realm of art. Zapata’s work has been exhibited at the New Museum (NY), El Museo del Barrio (NY), Museum of Art and Design (NY), Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (NY), Boston University (MA), LAXART (CA), amongst others.