b. 1979, Santiago, Chile / Works and lives between Buenos Aires, Argentina & Londres, UK.
Catalina Swinburn’s work translates into key messages and universal concerns such as sustainability, identity, gender equality and globalisation, underlining the connections of the Global South throughout history. The use of weaving and vintage documents is a vital and dynamic language for raising awareness both physically and conceptually while aiming to strengthen the integration between various communities in making reference to female resilience. She peruses to rescue ancestral rituals related to sacred places, ancestral geography and original memory. Regenerating these narratives articulates for the artist both a sense of urgency and a mode of resistance. The artwork is therefore activated by the artist’s position as both fabricator and performer of the sculpture. This could be seen as a metaphor for resistance, where woven narratives are portrayed as a substitute for the silence of women throughout history.
Textiles are eloquent expressions of women’s concern with cultural tradition and transmutation, and are recognized as fundamental to studies of gender, social identity, status, exchange and modernization. By using weaving as a metaphor for resistance, her practice brings us closer to our cultural identity and offers an alternative view of the function of art as a vehicle of consciousness by meeting various forms of knowledge, opening a dialogue between conservatism and innovation, between continuity and transmutation.
She received a BA in Fine Arts from the Catholic University of Chile.
Swinburn’s work has been widely exhibited at several institutions, including Centro Cultural Matta, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Museo de la Inmigración, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Mapi Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay / Museo de la Universidad de Antioquia & Museo de la Universidad de Medellin, Medellin / Monnaie du Paris, Pairs, France / MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago de Chile, Chile / MAVI Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
Swinburn’s work forms part of many prestigious collections of art, including Pilar Citoler Foundation, Cordoba, Spain / Balanz Capital collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Latin American Art Collection Artnexus, Bogotá Colombia / CCu Art Collection, Santiago de Chile, Chile / ICC Contemporary Institue of Culture, Sao Paulo, Brazil / Arte Al Dia Collection, Miami, U.S.A / Rosenblum Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina / Permanent Public Intervention, Vitacura Parks, Santiago de Chile, Chile.