The Cage Became a Bird presents twelve large-scale textile works by Elsa María Meléndez, spanning tapestries and three-dimensional sculptures. Heavy fabrics pull against the body; the act of creation is a full physical reckoning between artist and material. Rooted in Puerto Rican identity and feminist resistance, the works frame freedom not as escape but as elemental becoming. The cage does not simply open. It transforms into the very creature it sought to contain.
