Dara Etienne

Dara Etienne is a multidisciplinary textile artist working between sculpture, installation, and performance. Their work investigates domesticity, embodied knowledge, and belonging in a postcolonial world. Through discarded objects, scrap fabric, and soft sculpture, they utilize their own material-based language to reimagine Afro-Caribbean identity. A Black genderfluid maker and child to Caribbean immigrants, Etienne reconceptualizes the meaning of “home” in the mainland United States and in the Caribbean. Rooted in the sewing traditions of their mother and grandmother, they combine fiber working processes with urban trash— such as hubcaps, soda cans, and pipes— to redefine interior places. Found materials form the basis of their practice, as Etienne harnesses the past lives of these items to create intimate objects and spaces. An abandoned crib, gifted yarn, and spoken poetry written by their mother coalesce into a single experience, where lamentation over the choice to immigrate can coexist with a promise to return “home”; wherever and whatever that may be. In contrasting hard and soft forms, Etienne creates spaces within the diaspora for collective connection and expansiveness.

Dara Etienne (b. 2000, Randolph, MA, currently based in Alfred, NY) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and craftsperson from Eastern Massachusetts. They received their BA in Biology and Studio Art with honors at Williams College and are currently pursuing an MFA in Sculpture and Dimensional Studies at Alfred University. Recently based in Pittsburgh, Etienne has shown regionally through 820 gallery, PA; Bunker Projects, PA; the Brew House Vitrine, PA; the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, PA; The Future is Black, PA; Tissue Farm, PA; the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, NYC; and Flow Space Gallery, NYC. They have completed residencies at Contemporary Craft, the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, and Bunker Projects, as well as a regional residency in Michigan through the Chrysalis Institute. They have been featured in Petrichor magazine (2024), and were one of the recipients of Williams College’s inaugural Art of Social Justice Prize (2022).