The Queue: Cassandra Mayela
The Queue: Cassandra Mayela
The Queue: Cassandra Mayela
Cassandra Mayela. Photo by Shana Jade.
Cassandra Mayela’s meaningful tapestries tell the stories of Venezuelan migrants.
Cassandra Mayela left Isla de Margarita, an island off the coast of Venezuela, for New York in 2014, one of more than 7.5 million Venezuelans displaced by economic and political turmoil in her home country. Since 2021, for her Maps of Displacement series, she has been weaving stories of displacement and migration from the clothing and mementos of her fellow migrants, interviewing more than 200 people and meticulously cataloging their donated items and fabric. Mayela is a lifelong artist—she used a loom for the first time as a curious 9-year-old. In her current work, she weaves together strips of fabric on a stretcher-frame-turned-loom belonging to her husband, painter and writer Basie Allen. M. Ferreira Vogel wrote about Mayela’s powerful textile works and creative practice in “Weaving Their Stories” in the Fall 2024 issue of American Craft.
Peace and Abundance, 2024, dye sublimation on repurposed fabrics and garments, 33 x 42 x 0.5 in. Photo courtesy of Olympia Gallery.
98 Percent Totality, 2024, repurposed fabrics and garments, 52 x 48.5 x 0.5 in. Photo courtesy of Olympia Gallery.
Maps of Displacement Vol II: East Coast, 2022, repurposed fabrics and garments, 123 x 94 x 3 in. Photo courtesy of Olympia Gallery.
How do you describe your work or practice in 50 words or less?
My practice is definitely mine. I’m self-taught and I’m driven by intuition and a desire to work with found materials, which keeps the work ever shifting. I’m not preoccupied with achieving technical perfection. My approach feels more painterly than anything.
Your artwork is inextricable from your own story as an immigrant. Tell us about your favorite artworks about migration.
I really like my colleagues Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and Ronald Pizzoferrato’s work. Natalia focuses on the Puerto Rican diaspora, while Ronald is also following the Venezuelan migration crisis. I recently saw Pacita Abad’s retrospective at MoMA PS1, and I found her Immigrant Experience series very inspirational as well.
Your massive textile works from the Maps of Displacement series incorporate materials supplied by hundreds of your fellow Venezuelan migrants. What are the biggest challenges of working with donated textiles?
I think the two main challenges are all the effort and time that collecting [materials] and interviewing participants requires and the little agency I have in the materials I end up working with. I have no control over the colors, elasticity, texture, and so on. But that’s also what makes it fun and cathartic. In a way, it feels like working in the dark.
What has been the reaction to the finished works from the people who have donated materials?
Reactions are so broad. I recall a friend’s dad who reluctantly donated his shirt to the project. He just didn’t understand what I was trying to do. Once I showed the final piece, he came to me and gave me a big hug and said, “¡Cassandra, yo sabía que tú estabas loca, pero esto es impresionante!” (“I knew you were crazy, but this is awesome!”) and “That’s my shirt!” He was so moved; it was very special.
If you could have work from any contemporary craft artist in your home, whose would it be and why?
I would love to have one of Marisol Escobar’s sculptures. Her wooden pieces remind me of a folk art sculpture my grandmother had at her house in Caracas. It was a 4-foot-tall carved wood stump painted with vibrant colors, and I think about it often. I’m also particularly attracted to Marisol’s search for identity and her study of the self as an immigrant body.
Which craft artists, exhibitions, or projects do you think the world should know about, and why? Whose work do you love?
I visited the exhibition Weaving Abstraction in Ancient and Modern Art at the Met a few months ago. They displayed art from contemporary artists such as Sheila Hicks and Olga de Amaral alongside pieces from Indigenous peoples of the South American Andes. It was amazing! I think we should appreciate traditional artisans, folk artists, and fine artists equally.
Repurposed materials shine through in this detail shot of Maps of Displacement Vol II: East Coast. Photo courtesy of Olympia Gallery.
