" Saqwamu...A Place Where Things are Made"
 

Welcome To

LEAH MATA FRAGUA

 
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I work in the space between presence and impermanence, where material and memory intersect. My practice is deeply rooted in the lands of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini (Northern Chumash), shaped by the movement of kinships, trade routes, and the cyclical nature of gathering. My sculptural work does not seek permanence. Instead, it exists in moments of transition—fragile, shifting, dissolving—challenging our perceptions of time, land, and motrality.

 

For years, I worked with abalone, a material that held generations of ecological and cultural knowledge. But warming oceans, scarcity, and imposed restrictions severed access. In response, I turned to papermaking—harvesting materials from the landscapes I am tied to, breaking them down, re-forming them into new bodies. This is not a replacement; it is a continuation, a conversation between land and hand, an act of resilience. The process itself mirrors cycles of renewal—materials softened, shaped, pressed, and sculpted into forms that remember where they came from.

 

These works map landscapes in flux—places where environmental and cultural erasure overlap. They capture what is fleeting, making visible the histories and sovereignties embedded in place. Through sculptural papermaking, I consider the weight of what is carried forward and what is left behind. My practice is a way of holding space for land, for memory, for the ongoing act of witnessing.

au’ au’

 
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