Tanya Aguiñiga is a Los Angeles-based furniture designer, artist, and activist whose work negotiates the physical and emotional spaces that emerge from living a binational identity. Raised between Tijuana and San Diego, she translates these cultural intersections into the ordinary objects of daily life, giving them new stories through shape, color, and touch.

In 2010, Aguiñiga spent six weeks in Chiapas, Mexico with a Mayan women’s collective learning a backstrap weaving method unique to the Highland Maya. With Crossing the Line, Aguiñiga adapts and reinterprets this traditional weaving technique to create a vivid, textured space that encourages people to interact with it and with each other. She states, “I’m excited about weaving with alternative structures, without the traditional weaving loom or other structure. At CAFAM, the actual architecture of the room will supply the tension to hold the weaving in place.” By infusing traditional materials with new design perspectives, Aguiñiga continues to traverse cultural boundaries and preconceived notions of craft.