Gabriel Dawe

Plexus No. 3
Image courtesy of http://www.gabrieldawe.com/

Gabriel Dawe is a native of Mexico City and worked as a graphic designer before foraying into fiber arts. From his website: 

In search for creative freedom he started experimenting and creating artwork, which eventually led him to explore textiles and embroidery—activities traditionally associated with women and which were forbidden for a boy growing up in Mexico. Because of this, his work is subversive of notions of masculinity and machismo that are so ingrained in his culture. By working with thread and textiles, Dawe’s work has evolved into creating large-scale installations with thread, creating environments that deal with notions of social constructions and their relation to evolutionary theory and the self-organizing force of nature.

The social constructions that Dawe is creating are comparable to some of the diagrams that are used in network society to show the various ways that we connect with our peers. The spiderweb-like creations with linear connections could easily be seen as social diagrams, connecting him simultaneously to his past and future. However, the Plexus series, which has been exhibited in Dallas where he is working on an MFA, is more about an architectural construct than the duality and contradiction of his forbidden craft. In an interview with My Modern Met, Dawe stated: 

Conceptually, these works are about the human need for shelter... Fashion and Architecture have many functions, but one thing they both share is that they protect us from the elements. I'm taking the main material that clothing is made out of—thread—to make an architectural structure. By reversing scale and material in this way, I end up with a structure that I see as symbolic of the social constructions humans need to survive as a species.

Considering how early it is in Dawe's career, he's already captivating an audience who wants to escape into his dreamy spaces. From the sound of it though, you can't really capture the true nature of his installations with photographs, so hopefully he'll be showing in New York sometime soon...