this is how to shoot a gun.

Rhode Island School of Design MFA Textiles | 2025

The textile work I have developed for my thesis is an exposing of the social interactions and phenomena of underprivileged realities and our mechanisms of survival. My work explores theatrics of community violence, as well as the archetypes and congruity of gang rituals, street murals, and labor. With an emphasis on deconstructed form, the work developed incorporates identity driven artifacts of my neighborhood back home. My garments which are hand patterned and self sewn represent victims, perpetrators and spectators of violence. Moments in my collection feature palimpsests composed of my hometown’s graffiti and real bullets woven into cloth using the linear exchange of the double block weave structure. There is a sincere dedication to labor with the development of my thesis work. Select textiles for my apparel are predominantly hand woven on an eight harness floor loom, and the usage of my hands was highly important for me. People back home threw punches, and here at RISD is where I learned how to throw picks. 

Through my work, the direct intention is that  I force your gaze to shift onto the sections of marginality I am affiliated with through legacy. I honor the violence we perform and the tools we carry with us. These are not only traditional tools but metaphorical tools. These are the tools of family members, immigrants, and gang members alike. Tools that blister a hand and tools that bloody a hand. This semester I ask myself if a gun and bullets are a weapon or a tool. Earning a Master’s degree at the Rhode Island School of Design is my choice of weapon. 

This is how to shoot a gun.