Catalina Swinburn’s woven sculptures reimagine discarded books as vessels of migration, tradition, and knowledge. The choice of books reflects narratives of diaspora, the transmission of cultural stories, and the expansion of knowledge as her practice builds on the idea of being portable. By incorporating not only pages but also with its components; book covers, marble paper, and even eliminated, unprinted pages, the artist engages with what remains unsaid—the secrets within the folds, the absence between the lines that are to be interpreted.

Constellation I embraces the materiality of leather, tinted with blue ink, reminiscent of ancient manuscripts on parchment, not simply because of its durability but also because of its connection to the earth, nature, the divine, and the preservation of knowledge. Inspired by the Blue Quran, for Swinburn, the deep blue symbolizes the cosmos, while the gold engravings evoke the sacred and ornamental beauty found in the margins of revered texts. Through the use of floral patterns, the artist employs a divine geometry to denote cosmic harmony and devotion. The intention is to create a work into the series of her previous work where there are intentionally no words or letters—no legibility—but rather putting forward a silence that transcends the written, connecting directly to the spiritual.

Her handwoven structure embodies a meditation on craft, time. The precise methodology behind the weaving process retains a spiritual practice—a mantra of repetition and contemplation. In this space, where words are mute, the artist seeks to open “a path and a portal for something that is beyond”, to guide us towards some knowledge that exists beyond language, to remind us that not everything needs to be said, for the woven itself speaks what words cannot.