quantum memory
Sublimation on Vintage Domestic Textiles
Quantum Memory investigates the transition of the documentary image from representation into material form. Using thermal sublimation, photographic dyes are embedded directly into vintage domestic textiles—cotton lace, linens, and inherited fabrics that carry their own histories of labor and use.
Rather than functioning as surface reproductions, these works alter the substrate at a molecular level. The image becomes inseparable from the material that carries it. Domestic textiles—objects historically associated with care, labor, and inheritance—become structural carriers of memory.
The work operates as a material translation system. Documentary encounters migrate into physical substrates, where memory persists not as representation, but as embedded structure.
Quantum Memory
Year: 2023–ongoing
Medium: Dye sublimation on vintage domestic textiles
Format: Unique works
Archive: Studio369 registry
Material and Process
Substrate: Hand-selected vintage cotton doilies and reclaimed lace, each carrying an existing history of anonymous domestic labor and intergenerational transmission.
Process: Thermal dye sublimation. Unlike surface printing, the heat and pressure gasify the ink, allowing it to bond with the fibers at a molecular level, becoming part of the physical structure.
Format: Each work is unique. The edges are left raw or pinned, emphasizing the work as a material fragment rather than a contained window.
I came across this man while walking through the streets of Old Delhi after my flight to Agra got canceled. I was immediately drawn to his presence, wearing his uniform and pausing from the chaos around us, almost like a statue in place and out of place at the same time. This street encounter becomes textile memory through sublimation onto salvaged fabric, folding spontaneous connection and urban grace into domestic material.
I was renting a room from this man while I was working in Guatemala. I had just finished photographing in Queja for my Los Olvidados series. I was telling him about my work, including a conversation about Monsanto trying to replace traditional corn in Guatemala. That’s when he shared that he grew corn and offered to show me his field, revealing the devastating effects of extreme weather on his harvest.
Photographed after a traditional Mayan ceremony atop the mountain in Queja, Guatemala—a village declared a graveyard following Hurricane Eta’s devastating landslide. The portrait fuses ritual, survival, and reverence, sublimated into domestic cloth that once graced unknown tables. Smoke still lingers in the fiber memory, connecting ancient practice with contemporary resilience.
I met this farmer-singer at a bus stop in Viñales while he was chatting with a friend, en route to perform at a local venue in town. His clothes carried traces of the day’s labor in the tobacco fields, but his posture suggested that rhythm had been held back for nightfall—the way he carried himself spoke of someone who lived between two worlds of work and performance. This encounter becomes textile memory through sublimation onto salvaged fabric, weaving Cuba’s enduring creative spirit into domestic material.
I was walking through Jaipur in the early morning to escape the heat when I came across a woman sitting peacefully as the sun hit the courtyard. Like the previous encounter in Delhi, I was drawn to this moment of peace amid the surrounding energy—her quiet presence creating a pocket of stillness in the warming light. This architectural encounter becomes textile memory through sublimation onto salvaged fabric, weaving serenity and sunlight into domestic material.
Project initiated: 2023–ongoing Medium: Dye sublimation on vintage domestic textiles Format: Unique works Studio369 archive and registry