Weaving Together Histories and Futures

Laylaa Randera, Manager of Community Projects, on the exhibition Three Lines: 2023 CARD Fellows, on view at Phillips@THEARC through January 23, 2025.

Three Lines brings together the work of an extraordinary trifecta: Tina Villadolid, Paloma Vianey, and Anne C. Smith, the inaugural CARD Fellows. 

Each of these artists uses lines, but not just in their artwork. Tina, Paloma, and Anne are drawing paths from their histories to ours. Line as length. Line as lineage. Line as border. Line as possibility. They remind us that the line is never simple. It’s never one thing. It’s a connection, and it’s a separation. It’s a whisper and a scream.

Now, humor me for a second. You ever tried to walk a straight line when you’re not quite sure where you’re going? That’s life, isn’t it? We stumble. We pause. Sometimes we get tangled up in knots, and I think Paloma knows a little about that. But what matters is the journey, how we choose to navigate the uncertain. How we choose to move through this world and through our histories, even when we’re walking in the dark like Anne’s drawn landscapes.

Tina’s work, for example, does more than just reclaim history. She actively retraces the stories that have been erased, and not gently either—she goes in with power and purpose. And I think we need that, right? A good, strong line drawn from the past to the present, reminding us that healing from generational trauma is not a gentle process. It’s fierce. It’s complicated. It’s a reclamation of our power.

Then we have Paloma, challenging the narratives forced upon her beloved Ciudad Juárez. She wraps her city in layers, much like a protective jacket, refusing to let others define it. Her line becomes a border—a border of care, a boundary against erasure—challenging the single narrative of danger told in the US about her home city. 

And finally, we have Anne, whose lines are less about borders and more about navigation. Hers is the line you trace when you’re feeling your way through the unknown. When you’re trying to create a home in both the visible and invisible sense. In her hands, a pencil becomes a tool for not just making marks, but for marking out a path. She leads us gently, reminding us that not all journeys require force. Sometimes, they require tenderness, intuition, and patience.

So, let’s celebrate these artists who have given us so much to think about, and so much to feel. They’re using their lines to weave together histories and futures, darkness and light, separation and connection. From the Philosophy of Ubuntu in my home country, South Africa, it rings true that “I am, because we are.”

And if there’s one thing I think bell hooks would remind us as we stand in front of this work, it’s this: the act of looking is never passive. When we witness art like this, we are involved. We are part of the story. So don’t just look—see. Don’t just stand there—feel. And most importantly, don’t just admire—act.

Join us for hands-on workshops led by Anne Smith (December 11) and Paloma Vianey (January 15).