In this workshop, participants will explore weaving as a powerful metaphor for both personal and collective narratives. By creating paper weavings, we will symbolize how individual experiences and stories come together to form a cohesive identity or community history.  

This workshop reflects the methodology used by Karl Mata Hipol during his artistic residency for the AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence 2024, which involved exploring the AGO's collection and archives. Hipol will introduce the tradition of Ilocano Abel (weaving) while encouraging participants to incorporate other patterns, colors, and textures into their designs to tell their own stories and create unique pieces.  

By combining individual weavings, participants will see how personal stories intersect to form a larger, interconnected narrative. This experience will deepen the understanding of how diverse narratives contribute to a shared cultural tapestry. Participants then go home with a patch-like card that puzzles to combine a bigger tapestry.   

Karl Mata Hipol is a Filipino Canadian multidisciplinary artist from the traditional unceded territories of the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations, commonly known as North Vancouver. Through his art practice, he explores museum archives and collections to investigate the presence/absence of Filipinos in Canada to challenge and disturb 'Filipino invisibility' by interweaving patterns from Ilocano Abel (weave). Holding a BFA from Emily Carr University (2022) with a major in Visual Art and a minor in Curatorial Practices, Mata Hipol has been recognized for Anti-Racism and Social Justice, receiving honours and Visual Art awards. Other accolades include the AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence (2024) and Herschel Supply Co. Artist-in-Residence (2022). His selected exhibition includes the Reach Gallery Museum, Gordon Smith Gallery, and public art commissions like the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Burnaby Village Museum and Burrard Arts Foundation.