fernández
research-led design.
material poetry for everyday objects
material poetry for everyday objects
Informed by her own female-transmitted craft heritage, Alana’s practice interrogates and engages with making and materials as the source for understanding and designing objects. Through making, materials become sites of investigation to dig for questions that cannot be found through observation or reading alone. These human-material conversations have rich histories intertwined with cultural, political and social significance, which often leads her research to textiles, systems of embodied knowledge, territory and gender. In this way, making is her primary method of inquiry to uncover more ways to relate to other forms of life, human or otherwise, and understand whether and how her practice can make meaningful contributions.
She designs commonplace objects that reveal overlooked knowledge, smuggling powerful meaning into everyday life. Walls, building blocks, books, textiles and colour itself become the vehicle to reveal the identities and mechanisms embedded within materials and making. Her design language is characterised by assembling, ornament as meaning, unexpected material pairings and the translation of techniques across disciplines, especially textile logic applied to other materials. She uses this language as a strategy to draw attention, designing objects that put knowledge systems on display. Aspiring to change their perception, and with it, people’s willingness to care for them. A starting point to better relationships between people, resources and production.
cv. independent practice
Education.
Minor in Textiles 2022. Bogotá, Colombia
Group Exhibitions.
2025. London, UK
2022. Bogotá, Colombia
2022. Bogotá, Colombia
Solo Exhibitions.
2026. Subachoque, Colombia
Awards.
2025. London, UK