ONE ROCK TIED TO ANOTHER ROCK

Chinatown Soup is pleased to present one rock tied to another rock, an exhibition of works by Isabela Miñana Lovelace on view from August 7–17, 2025. The show explores weaving and growing hair as memory practices within domestic settings, questioning how comfort is constructed in times of disaster.

Isabela Miñana Lovelace began collecting her hair in 2020, weaving and laminating the strands. After bleaching her hair, the stark line of growth became a biomarker of the quarantine, akin to a layer of ash marking a volcanic eruption in a geologic timeline. As a geologist, she collects her hair to mark phases of disaster. These laminated hair chronoscapes appear throughout the exhibition—as networks in Window (2025), as a larger system in Like fingers through her hair (or Hair Quilt) (2020–2025), and as embellishments in sillas envueltas (2025).

The domestic objects used in these works also carry histories of touch and comfort. The chairs in sillas envueltas (2025) were part of the artist’s childhood playhouse and games of “house.” Other objects’ origins remain unknown, such as the window frame and chair collected from her neighborhood, and the dollhouse gifted by her sister. Materials like plastic woven strips, thread, and beads were gathered from her homes in Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, Providence, and Ann Arbor.

Weaving itself is a memory practice, passed down through generations and cultures. Its time and labor require connection and support, while the woven forms symbolize networks and collective ties. This exhibition uses red woven materials referencing the Spanish word for network, red. The red threads also evoke connections to works like Gabriella N. Báez’s Ojalá nos encontremos en el mar (2018–) and the painful memories in David Wojnarowicz’s Bread Sculpture.

one rock tied to another rock asks: How can networks and memories be visualized? What does it mean to be enveloped in memory? How do domestic spaces perform comfort within the context of memory?

Isabela Miñana Lovelace was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. In her work, she explores the themes of comfort, home, community, connection, and materiality in relation to natural hazards and disasters, particularly in California and Puerto Rico, where her family resides.

She graduated from Brown University in Providence, RI with an A.B. in Visual Art with Honors and an A.B. in Geological Sciences. For her 2020 solo show, I don’t feel Comfortable at Home anymore, at the List Art Center, she embellished comforters with beads and produce nets to create associations with materials, build physical networks across space, and allude to the presence of the body.

She currently works as a researcher and assistant painter for the Social and Public Art Resource Center’s (SPARC) Great Wall project led by acclaimed muralist, Judy Baca. Additionally, she is pursuing an MS at the University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) with a specialty in Behavior, Education, & Communication (BEC), and Environmental Justice (EJ).