Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga: Warrior Workshop, 2017

Warrior Workshop was a week-long, interactive, participatory program series developed by contemporary fiber artist Tanya Aguiñiga. In collaboration with a local non-profit organization, she invited a group of young women to envision, craft, and fabricate their own wearable armatures in connection to a social or cultural issue they felt strongly about. Putting on the armatures is like changing into a superhero costume: through the act of visualizing and vocalizing their stances on issues they deem critical to their lives, the young women are transformed. The workshops culminated in a public pop-up exhibition of participants’ work that showcased their wearable armatures alongside photographs taken of them modeling their creations and messages in public spaces.

Held during July 2017, only six months after Trump’s election in 2016, Aguiñiga’s interactive project created a platform to center the visions and voices of young women and girls of color whose perspectives are often marginalized or erased from Santa Barbara’s public spaces and discourse.