Exhibition Statement

From birth, fabric cradles us—soft, worn, and imbued with care, a second skin that shields us from the world. In ¿Qué dice tu corazón?, Dominique Muñoz treats blankets and textiles in his photography-based practice not just as materials but as vessels of memory carried across generations, borders, and homes. Drawing from his Guatemalan heritage, Muñoz subverts the conventions of portraiture, challenging both the colonial and heteronormative histories of the medium.

In collaboration with his family, he constructs highly staged images within his studio and childhood homes, arranging blankets and their patterns in mesmerizing layers – queering the domestic space. These environments raise questions about traditional gendered expectations, becoming sites of fluidity and play. Cared for by the matriarchs in his family, these fabrics hold the weight of cultural identity. The vibrant motifs embed Mesoamerican mythologies as a form of knowledge, preserving and remixing traditional Guatemalan symbols and patterns. Photographic tools—C-stands, spring clamps—are left visible, exposing the mechanics of image-making, blurring the lines between authenticity and artifice. Mirrors, positioned behind the hand-cut silhouettes, shift the viewer’s perspective, revealing the textiles draped just beyond the camera’s gaze. These silhouettes punctuate his compositions allowing new patterns to emerge, echoing the fabrics that have shaped him. Muñoz embraces excess, not as something to be tamed but as a mode of joyful resistance. These aesthetic choices are not merely decorative; they assert the value of cultural expressions often dismissed as ‘tacky’ or excessive.

A wooden pallet, balanced precariously within the installation, echoes the instability of imposed structures—the rigid frameworks individuals are expected to navigate. It becomes a site of both constraint and possibility, mirroring the tensions of migration, identity formation, and gender roles. The peacock feathers serves as a symbol of beauty and masculinity while referencing a journey navigating traditional expectations. ¿Qué dice tu corazón? examines how histories of care and migration shape identity, ultimately questioning how we continue to remake home in ever-changing landscapes.