Material witness
Wallpaper|July 2023
Binational artist and Loewe Foundation Craft Prize finalist Tanya Aguiñiga weaves new narratives for borderless creativity
HARRIET LLOYD-SMITH
Material witness

Tanya Aguiñiga knows a thing or two about living in flux. From the age of four, each morning at 3.30am, she travelled across the US-Mexico border from her home in Tijuana to her school in San Diego. 'It's crazy, logistically. But it's also crazy, psychologically and emotionally,' she tells me via Zoom from her LA studio. 'At the time, kind of similar to now, there were massive amounts of migrants at the border up against the fence trying to get to the US side. We had to navigate pretty difficult experiences on our way. There was incredible desperation on the faces of adults, and as a child, it's super difficult to deal with.

At the age of 18, Aguiñiga moved in with her grandmother in San Diego and settled in the US. 'In a lot of our border towns, you're constantly part of whatever journeys people are on. Mostly, that involves people's really tragic journeys to get to the border,' says the artist, who, because she was born in the US, was able to cross freely. 'I constantly thought about my privilege, and I had a lot of guilt for being able to cross back and forth. It does, obviously, shape who you become.' Aguiñiga's wide-ranging practice spans sculpture, furniture and fashion design, immersive installations, performance, and community-based projects. Her art is far from a solitary pursuit; her studio of seven years, a World War II Quonset hut in LA's Elysian Valley, has become a meeting point of sorts, for workshops, craft fairs, and to exhibit the work of other artists, particularly those marginalised. When I came to see it, I thought it was the most amazing studio space I had ever seen,' she says. 'People are always like: "Are you in a spaceship?"'

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von Wallpaper.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von Wallpaper.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS WALLPAPERAlle anzeigen
Blonde Ambition - A new iteration of Gucci's beloved 'Blondie' bag fuses effortless Seventies insouciance with crisp modernity
Wallpaper

Blonde Ambition - A new iteration of Gucci's beloved 'Blondie' bag fuses effortless Seventies insouciance with crisp modernity

Recently reimagined by creative director Sabato De Sarno as part of his Cruise 2025 collection, Gucci’s ‘Blondie’ bag, first launched in 1971, centres around a rounded version of the brand’s historic interlocking-G symbol. Now one of fashion’s most recognisable motifs, it remains on De Sarno’s interpretation, which is designed to recall the original’s effortless insouciance and the heady, liberated spirit of the 1970s.

time-read
1 min  |
November 2024
Role Models - Elmgreen & Dragset's subversive take on the classical form at Paris' Musée d'Orsay explores contemporary masculinities in a heteronormative world
Wallpaper

Role Models - Elmgreen & Dragset's subversive take on the classical form at Paris' Musée d'Orsay explores contemporary masculinities in a heteronormative world

As Elmgreen & Dragset, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset bring a smart subversion to their large-scale installations. Over the last three decades, they have taken a sideways look at social and political systems by recontextualising mainstream motifs: works have included a full-scale replica of a Prada boutique in the Texan desert and a vast, vertical swimming pool, now installed in Hong Kong.

time-read
5 Minuten  |
November 2024
Flask Force - A limited-edition perfume collaboration between two Spanish craft masters says it with flowers
Wallpaper

Flask Force - A limited-edition perfume collaboration between two Spanish craft masters says it with flowers

Loewe and Lladró are two brands with a lot in common. They're both Spanish, they're both born out of an obsessive desire to master a particular material (Loewe with leather and Lladró with porcelain), and they're both exemplars of luxury design. So it seems fitting, then, that the two maisons have finally come together for an exceptional collaboration, launching this autumn: a limited-edition run of porcelain flask toppers for three of Loewe Perfumes' classic scents.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
October 2024
Bloom Service - A flower-shaped brutalist beauty in Geneva gets a refresh
Wallpaper

Bloom Service - A flower-shaped brutalist beauty in Geneva gets a refresh

Tucked between the extensive campus of Geneva's University Hospital and a huddle of associated medical institutions, laboratories and surgeries, the Avenue de la Roseraie is trod by few casual visitors to the Swiss city. And yet here - out of sight in a small car park is an extraordinary structure that, situated elsewhere, would surely draw the attention of architectural students like bees to a nectar-rich flower. Horticulturalists, too, perhaps, for whom a building nicknamed La Tulipe might well incite curiosity.

time-read
4 Minuten  |
October 2024
Second Nature -A remodelled museum in Lisbon, by Kengo Kuma & Associates, meshes Japanese and Portuguese influences to create a space that sits in harmony with its surroundings
Wallpaper

Second Nature -A remodelled museum in Lisbon, by Kengo Kuma & Associates, meshes Japanese and Portuguese influences to create a space that sits in harmony with its surroundings

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's complex in Lisbon has been one of the city's best-loved landmarks since it opened in the 1960s. The foundation aims to improve quality of life through art, charity, science and education, and its Lisbon campus encompasses a main office, library, scientific research centre and contemporary art museum, Centro de Arte Moderna (CAM), which reopens this month following an extensive four-year renovation by Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates. Designed in collaboration with landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, the update cleverly reconfigures the space and extends the foundation's gardens to craft a more cohesive relationship between the existing structures.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
October 2024
Cane and Able- Fusing traditional craftsmanship with contemporary vision, design studio Ibuku demonstrates the versatility of bamboo at a serene Bali villa
Wallpaper

Cane and Able- Fusing traditional craftsmanship with contemporary vision, design studio Ibuku demonstrates the versatility of bamboo at a serene Bali villa

Over the last decade, Bali-based studio Ibuku, headed up by designer Elora Hardy, has become a leading expert in bamboo architecture, its output encompassing everything from a traditional Sumbanese house and a yoga and meditation space to playful treehouses and a riverside café at an eco-friendly jungle retreat in Ubud. In 2021, the studio completed The Arc sports hall at the Green School in Bali (founded by Elora's father, designer John Hardy). Made from a series of arches spanning an impressive 19m, it was a pioneering feat of bamboo engineering.

time-read
2 Minuten  |
October 2024
Guest Editor Marcio Kogan - Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century).
Wallpaper

Guest Editor Marcio Kogan - Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century).

Marcio Kogan has been prolific since setting up his namesake studio in São Paulo in 1978 (it was renamed Studio MK27 at the turn of the century). The 72-year-old architect has since become synonymous with contemporary Brazilian chic, offering a sumptuous blend of raw, textured materials; clean geometric forms; effortless functionality; vernacular design features; and a deep knowledge and appreciation of the rich, tropical modernist architecture legacy of his home country.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
October 2024
DREAM TEAM
Wallpaper

DREAM TEAM

A rewatching of a seminal film laid the foundation for JW Anderson's latest collection, a fantastical collaboration with artist Christiane Kubrick

time-read
4 Minuten  |
November 2024
Commercial artists
Wallpaper

Commercial artists

We conjure up public spaces that look and feel good, taking our design cues from the domestic landscape

time-read
2 Minuten  |
November 2024
LINES OF BEAUTY
Wallpaper

LINES OF BEAUTY

Massimo Giorgetti's new rug collection for CC-Tapis takes Milan's 1960s metro system as a departure point

time-read
3 Minuten  |
November 2024