Ana Teresa Barboza is a textiles artist from Lima. As well as an impressive CV her work is a varied display of broad, interesting and narrated textiles.

How did you get into textiles?

When I was 12 my grandmother taught me how to use a sewing machine and understand Burda patterns. During school and university, I always liked doing things with my hands. I love transforming materials and turning them into something else. I studied painting and during my university years discovered other artists using embroidery and sewing. I began embroidering canvas during the last two years of my art career; I moved from painting to embroidery. The sewing world has many techniques, details and subtleties that when incorporated into art, the pieces are enriched aesthetically and conceptually.

How long have you been an embroidery artist?

I’ve been working with embroidery since the last two years of school (2003-2004).

How do you plan your projects? 

Each project comes as a consequence of the previous one. When I am producing pieces for a project I always imagine new ideas, images and concepts that can become new projects.

What’s the longest time you’ve spent working on a project?

At least a year. It takes time to have a clear concept of what I want to do, and although the work of embroidery and weaving is very laborious, producing it becomes easier when I have clear ideas in order.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m working with landscape pictures that I took during different trips. I embroidered the photographs and mixed them with tapestry. The immediacy of the photograph is contrasted with the meticulous manual work of the tapestry and the embroidery. 

When we observe the landscape, nature becomes visible as an inscription on the surface. A fingerprint that stops guessing the different natural phenomena, which transforms the world but is imperceptible to our eyes. Here the photographic image makes nature visible, an impression on the paper as an impression on the earth, and from where threads and fabric emerge. The embroidery and weaving in the pieces wants to show us what exists behind these events, demonstrating her constant transformation, where the thread is the record of many instances.

Which other textiles artists do you admire?

An artist who recently I discovered is Anu Tuominen. I like the simplicity of her work and the powerful concepts behind it.

Who would you like to collaborate with and why?

I would like to collaborate with embroidery and loom artisans. In my country Peru are many craftsmen and a lot of different techniques that are developed in different towns. It would be amazing to be able to work with each technique in each region and learn from them. 

What do you love about textiles?

I like working with my hands. I like how making textiles can take you to another time and space. I like to touch them, and I also like that those who see them want to touch them too.

You can see more of Ana’s work here.