I developed the idea of this embroidery during the spring of 2022. My first thoughts of using the red color came with the idea of using cochineal to dye yarn, I thought of red as the color that is best associated to represent the concepts of violence, blood, life, death, love. With these concepts in mind I chose to talk about the concept of death. Mexican culture is characterised by having a unique worldview regarding death. The indigenous celebrations of the Day of the Dead are an intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It is unfortunate that Mexico is also known as a country with a high number of homicides and gender violence. In Mexico it is not only a tradition to celebrate Death and an inspirational theme in the arts, it is also a tragedy that fills us with completely rational fear.
With this piece I seek to interpret the mixed feelings towards my own culture, first by celebrating the natural death as something inevitable like life itself, an endless cycle of symbiotic duality. And at the same time, through the representation of embroidered skulls, topographical lines of the region where I was born, and spots of red yarn colored with cochineal insect endemic from Mexico, I wish to condemn, the violent and tragic death that bleeds us as a culture, generating collective suffering.
As a final twist to the piece I wanted to present a tribute to the cochineal insect, falling from the cactus, to become the red color that we have discussed previously.