carol ann apilado

Parallel Portal Parallel Portal is a gateway between dimensions, where tradition, abstraction, technology, and the act of creation come together. Weaving this piece on the TC2 digital loom became a meditative practice for me, a way to align ancestral memory with contemporary innovation and personal intention.

At the heart of this work are two symbols that hold deep cultural resonance. The kusikus pattern, believed by the Ilokano and Itneg people to offer protection, and the lingling-o amulet, which represents fertility and the balance between the masculine and feminine. I reimagined these elements in an abstract, freeform, mandala-like design that speaks to both grounding and expansion.

I first hand-drew the design digitally, then translated it into woven form using the TC2 loom. The shift from the virtual to the tactile felt powerful, like pulling memory and energy through time and into material form. With its symmetry and layered movement, Parallel Portal invites the viewer into a liminal space where weaving becomes more than process. It becomes a bridge between the physical and spiritual, the traditional and the modern.