La Sala
Priscilla Dobler ’09
Imagine stepping into a living room where the couch, chairs, and side tables have been replaced with colorful yarn weavings. And instead of hearing the sounds of a television show, you hear voices discussing identity.
This is La Sala, an installation by visual artist Priscilla Dobler ’09 that debuted at Tacoma’s Feast Arts Center in March. The piece explores the concepts of identity, labor, race, gender, and domesticity—topics that Priscilla, who was born in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico, and who has Scottish and German-American grandparents, has struggled with. “I’m very indigenous-looking, but half of me is European. It’s been difficult to identify with one culture, and it’s made me interested in how other people identify,” she says.
As part of the installation, she interviewed Tacoma residents from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and asked them to discuss what importance the home holds in determining identity. Audio and video from those interviews are projected behind the installation.
Another of Priscilla’s woven installations, La Cocina, will be on display at Seattle’s Method Gallery beginning Sept. 14.
