Textiles by Stina Baudin

Internal Algorithms (Listen to your ancestors, they have all the answers) (2023) is a large textile artwork featuring a rhythmic black-and-white design that encourages viewers to stop and observe the changing patterns. Hidden within the artwork are messages that focus on the concepts of time and history. This piece was conceived during the pandemic, a time when the struggles of Black people were often overlooked and dismissed. The process of weaving this piece became a daily ritual and a positive affirmation for Stina, serving as a reminder of the deep-rooted wisdom and awareness inherent in the Black diaspora.

Data Studies: Caribbean-Canadian Geographies 86/96 (2022) is a textile sculpture in which the artist uses a loom to weave data that we are accustomed to accessing on a computer. In this context, data is translated and woven into color-patterned tales, using the warp to visualize migrational plights. Oscillating between ritual and repetition, notions of truth and myth, Stina investigates both form and materials in this work. The aim is to draw meanings to the relationships that have shaped the identity, movement, and resistance of Black people.

These works embody Stina’s experimentation with archival content, data, text, and folk tales; through their potential to be intertwined, sewn, and re-sewn, they narrate the stories of Black individuals through a mixed-media approach. By blurring the lines between anecdotal and statistical information, realities and myths, they serve as a complex domain of intersecting forms of knowledge.

Co-presented with MOMENTA Biennale de l’image with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.