Rising Stars: Meet Perla Segovia

Hi Perla, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
At the age of 11, escaping terrorism in Peru. I emigrated to the U.S. with my family. This separation from my country of birth created a longing to learn more about the culture I had left behind and led me to learn about textiles. I enrolled in the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University, and in 2000, I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Textile with a concentration in design. My focus then was to create contemporary fabrics inspired by pre-Columbian textile designs. In my design process, I would research Pre-Columbian textiles, I would make a painting that was inspired by them and then manipulate this painting to create an abstract version of it using Photoshop. These patterns would be later printed using digital printers. In 2001, I moved back to Peru, and I immersed myself in my birth country’s nature and culture. While there I learned to work with glass and began to incorporate textile techniques into my glass work. In 2003, I moved to Italy and studied pattern making at Istituti Callegari. My pattern-making skills have become very useful through the years, especially when I decided to explore soft sculptures made with canvas. After Italy, I lived in Puerto Rico, Utah, Missouri, back to North Carolina, and now I reside in Tucson, Arizona where I obtained a Master of Fine Arts from The University of Arizona.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Life is never a smooth road. At least not for me, and I welcome that. The adversities that I have I have faced have made me into the strong resilient person that I am today. These adversities, in return, allow me to put myself in others’ shoes when they face their own adversities. They have made me more empathetic of others’ plights and have led me to make the work that I currently produce. Obstacles and or challenges can be seen as change and the opportunity for new pages in life. I welcome change, for change gives you a chance to create opportunity.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a multidisciplinary artist. My goal as an artist is to explore society’s current events and translate them into works that act as a catalyst of empowerment, empathy, and constructive activism. I am particularly interested in making works about the issues of marginalized groups of people. When possible, I like to incorporate textiles and textile techniques into my work because they resonate with most of us and, therefore, have the potential to be an effective tool of communication. I believe textiles transcend culture, geography, and time and are capable of serving as a unifying impetus in our tumultuous society.

Working with glass is also an important part of my practice. I became attracted to glass because it can be shaped and formed like other sculptural media; additionally, I was attracted to its ability to transmit light, which can empower an art piece. It also offers inner space because of its transparent/translucent properties. At first, my glass work was exclusively decorative and utilitarian, and it later evolved to also include conceptual art. Through the years, I achieved uniting my passion for textiles and glass by making works using a woven glass technique that I learned while taking a workshop in a glass studio in Missouri, Art Glass Array. With my background in textiles, I was able to take this technique and use my knowledge of weaving to create more complex weave designs. Over the years, I have explored different ways of unifying glass and textiles. I find it poetic to use textile techniques with glass. This is because glass is made out of sand. The same raw material that had provided some of the best conditions for the survival of textiles and protected them from deteriorating for thousands of years, allowing future generations to appreciate them and their message. I am most proud of the technique that I developed in grad school, where I merged embroidery and glass via screen printing. I used this technique in my installation Retablo de Imágenes y Memorias, which is one of my most important works. Retablo de Imágenes y Memorias is a multimedia installation composed of works in glass, embroidered drawings, and handmade, embroidered shoes on either side of an altar wall. These objects are presented in and around appropriated forms of the retablo, one of the most powerful tools of colonization, to tell the contemporary immigrant story in visual form.

Having the ability to create in many ways and not being limited to just one medium gives me an advantage in creating work that resonates well with others. Through the years besides learning to work with textile techniques and glass, I have made paintings, and drawings, have worked with ceramics, and have learned to weld, etc. Having an expansive tool belt has allowed me to configure various mediums appropriately into my work and, therefore, communicate my message saliently and reach a broader audience. I believe in the power of medium specificity, of truth to materials that take the inherent properties of mediums beyond their utilitarian purpose but use them also for their intrinsic value. This takes applied craft to a medium of art.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
When we put ourselves in others’ shoes, when we become empathetic of their troubles, we are truly capable of making this world a better place.