Samuel Aguirre

In this installment of Reference by Saint Fleur, Sam Aguirre discusses his sculptural objects made from traditional papermaking materials and techniques. Working with pulp, fiber and adhesives, he explores novel approaches to structure, mark making, and surface treatment, bridging pre-industrial craft with contemporary form. #ReferenceBySaintFleur #SamAguirre #Papermaking #ContemporaryCraft #EmergingArtist

Bench 02, Amate Black in collaboration with Tony Torres @notdipped Presented at Nuevas Herencias Exhibition at @espacio_cdmx Curated and produced by @ofthreads_ Feb 4-8 in CDMX during Mexico City Art Week MUCHAS gracias a @almajimenezlopez_ @serg88mondragon @chelseaflintoft for bringing this show together !🙏! _____ @ofthreads is a curatorial collective celebrating Mexican-American artists and designers across America through stories of identity, heritage, and migration. Nuevas Herencias is an exploration of the inheritances we choose to create and pass down. Moving beyond memory and lineage, this exhibition centers authorship, the emotional, cultural, and aesthetic truths shaping Mexican-American identity today. Not nostalgia. Lived experience. Home carried within. _____ Bench 02, Amate Black 56” x 17” x 17” H Amate ribbon, natural pigments, post consumer pulp, corn starch, cardboard, muslin Bench 02 is the next iteration in the novel use of ancient paper making materials and techniques. In collaboration with Tony Torres, Bench 02 uses a technique Tony and Sam call “Amate Ribbon”, an adaptation of traditional Amate paper making in which short strands of fiber are carefully pounded with a stone. Engaging with these techniques feels transformative as they deepen cultural understanding through novel processes rooted in tradition.

If you didn’t know, AI is a straight up silly goose 🪿 Bench 02, another collaboration with my Brother in Amate Tony Torres @notdipped , is heading to @espacio_cdmx with @ofthreads_ for the Nuevas Herencias exhibition🙏🙏🙏 Can’t wait to see my @ofthreads_ team 💚🤍♥️

OF THREADS presents: Nuevas Herencias. Samuel Aguirre explores inheritance through material, labor, and shared cultural knowledge. Bench 02, created in collaboration with Tony Torres, reimagines the ancient Amate technique through contemporary object-making—treating process itself as something passed down, adapted, and kept alive. The work reflects how ancestral practices become present-day tools, carrying history forward through care, ingenuity, and collective memory. On view 2/4-2/8 @espacio_cdmx CDMX @ofthreads_ @sam_indaman @designweekmex @mxterritoriocreativo

shooting with @travislemire at @loominous Apr ‘25 Fiber Table Lamp, Amate Cafe Post consumer paper pulp, corn starch, Mexican Amate Paper, pine wood, brass, lighting assembly 14 x 14 x 22” H

White on white Chair 03, Kozo w/ Flecks Cotton, corn starch, cardboard, Handmade Kozo Paper (Mulberry fiber) 24 x 24 x 36” H (guest chair) 📸: @travislemire

Lounge Chair ready! For chairs, a clay-like compound of natural fibers and binders are molded onto a cardboard armature and allowed to slowly air dry while settling into its final shape. The process is rooted in traditional paper making materials and techniques. Once cured, the chair is structurally sound and meant for everyday, indoor use. Each chair is made by hand and archival. Chair 04, Nude Cotton, corn starch, cardboard, natural pigments 26 x 26 x 30” H (lounge chair) 📸: @travislemire

Visión y Tradición 2025 llegó al Museo de Antropología con piezas que celebran el diálogo entre saberes, materiales y creatividad colectiva. Acá te compartimos algunas de nuestras piezas favoritas. 💫 ¿Tú ya fuiste también? ¡Cuéntanos tus favs! 👇 Hasta el 2 de noviembre. 🗓️ Conoce los detalles en coolhuntermx.com

One more object in Mexico City this month 🙂👃🙃 This one made possible by the Vision and Tradition Program through @mxterritoriocreativo @territorio.galeria @designweekmex I am so proud of the work we did in San Pablito this summer. Thank you @andycesarman and @ecabrero for taking a chance 🙏🙏🙏 This is a collaboration between object maker @sam_indaman , origami artist @cekouat Leon, and Amateros Juan and Pablo Santos. You can see it at the Museo Nacional De Antropológico @mnantropologia Oct7-Nov2 ______ Duality Under the Mountain 2025 Mexican Amate paper, jonote colorado fiber, corn starch, mulberry tree stump, muerdago, lighting assembly This art object serves as a testament to the legacy of Amate craftsmanship. The Otomi people in San Pablito, Puebla, Mexico have been renowned since pre-Columbian times for producing Amate bark paper and have survived the craft for generations despite many adversities through the centuries. The sculpture emerges from a mulberry tree stump, prized as a superior source of fiber for paper-making, intertwined with parasitic growths harvested from the region and enveloped in Amate Bark Paper. Above the base are traditional geometric patterns and a prominent bird motif symbolizing San Pablito, “under the mountain”, and wrapped by a textured, brown mountain range. The form and patterns encapsulate the inherent dualities of contemporary Amate work: the interplay between ancestral traditions and modern innovation, pre- and post-colonization eras, the ethereal spirit world and tangible reality, as well as the shift from craft for ritual and community sustenance to commercial production for economic survival. This object poignantly illustrates how these tensions coexist and evolve. Every component exists “under the mountain,” forging a narrative of cultural resilience and ecological interdependence. The viewer is invited to reconsider the context in which Amate is seen and contemplate the vitality of indigenous arts in a changing world.

My sisters and I grew up with a Mexican father and an American mother. We were having a different experience from our Mexican cousins and our American friends. My appearance, how and where I grew up, and rightful ownership of a Mexican-American identity are deep cuts. We felt other and accepted the confusion. ______ @ofthreads_ and @territorio.galeria present “Hecho En Recuerdo” during @designweekmex . Curated by @almajimenezlopez_ and @serg88mondragon 🙏 “This exhibition brings together Mexican-American artists and designers who live in the “in-between”, raised in American suburbs, border towns, immigrant households, and hybrid spiritual landscapes. This work doesn’t replicate tradition, it responds to it. It remakes it. It transforms it.” ______ I’m grateful for a platform like @ofthreads_ for championing these conversations. Knowing my experience is not unique is giving my little person the voice he didn’t have the courage to use. Thank you: @ofthreads_ @territorio.galeria @g56_hubcreativo @espacio_cdmx @designweekmex 🙏🙏🙏 ______ Fiber Lamp, Amate 2024 Amate paper, muslin, corn starch, rattan, lighting assembly 24 x 24 x 36” H For this work, natural fibers were formed into a familiar lamp assembly and allowed to slowly air dry while settling into a unique, gestural shape. The process is rooted in traditional paper making materials and techniques. Once cured, the lamp is treated as a medium to collage handmade Amate Paper. This lamp is made by hand with natural materials, is one of a kind, and archival.

belly button dimmer knobs. Outies are in-e Fiber Table Lamp, 2025. Batch of six. 📸: @travislemire

Hemp fiber + red iron oxide pigment ☄️ Chair 03, Red Iron Oxide Hemp fiber, corn starch, cardboard, natural pigments 24 x 24 x 36” H (guest chair) 📸: @travislemire