Se te aclara con el Sol
2021
The wind picks up a bit and the sun starts to shine.
When I was a kid, every year when spring started, my mom would tell me that my hair would get lighter with the sun. She would cover my head in manzanilla and send me out to play in the sun. I was always so excited for my hair to change colour as the sun slowly bleached to a half shade lighter of dark brown. It wasn't all that noticeable of a change but, for me, I felt like a new person each summer.
In 2020, I came across an odd piece of fabric. I was drawn to it because it reminded me of some pillows my grandma once made that she had embroidered in a rich pink. The fabric was a thin loose cotton with a geometric pink and white pattern that smelled of dust. As I began to unfurl the fabric, the pink shades slowly drifted to pale peach and off white. I was disappointed since the peach tones reminded me much less of my grandma's pillows, I can only assume that the fabric had been sitting in the store for so long without any use that the sun sneaking through the store windows had bleached it. Maybe the fabric also wanted to change for the summer? Maybe in a way to feel more authentic to its pattern that seemed to derive from Mexico, on its salvage some faint wording read Aztec muslin. I wanted to give this fabric the chance to fulfil its change, I hung it in the sun for a couple days and hopefully soon it will be fully pink. For now, I can just document its slow change as it tries its best.
The Sun Has Done It's Part
2021 - ongoing
Since last we spoke the serape was slowly fading from peach tone to a soft Mexican pink. It has spent many days in the sun as it became beaded and embroidered. Its colours matured with every passing minute, slightly uneven as its own folds cast shadows on itself. It has become more authentic, decorated with brilliant thread and glass beads taking on the images of a peacock on an embroidered pillow my grandmother made. Its tones are now rosed with the sun and its imagery partly complete. The sun has done its part now it's up to me.
Pateñt
2020
A piñata sits in an empty garage hanging from a tattered rope and teetering in the absent wind as it awaits the moment of collision that bridges and ruptures narratives of tradition.
Growing up in a Mexican immigrant household with 5 kids I saw a constant stream of piñatas of every size and shape being built and destroyed every year. The piñata became intimate to how my family celebrated and became a strong connection to Mexico for me, piñatas no longer represented remnants of religious tradition within my family but rather became a relic of another nature. In this project, I wanted to examine the cultural symbol of piñata that I recalled from childhood and recontextualize it based on the tradition and history of the piñata and its role within my experience.
A couple of years ago I came across a document that, for me, emblemized the shift of piñata from an object of intimate handmade family experience into a mass-produced object that bears no resemblance to its origins. I found this document when doing my research and I became fixated on it. It was a patent for an American company that explained how to make piñatas in the most cost-efficient way. The patent from 1976 claims ownership over the piñata as a hollow-bodied object and reduces the tradition of the piñata into legal jargon while never acknowledging its Mexican origins. Furthermore, the document, while ignoring the history of the piñata, also failed to include the ñ in the word piñata.
After reading the document, I was so shocked that the erasure of Mexican culture went so far that the document itself couldn’t even spell piñata properly -as if naming it would give it too much dignity- so I decided to begin by reintroducing the ñ into the document, not just in the word piñata but also in the word patent and wherever I felt it needed it. I began to redact the patent in an attempt to remove the legal narrative while revealing the Mexican narrative of erasure and appropriation. I began to reintroduce the Mexican narrative through inserting Mexican aesthetics into the diagrams, by doing this I hope to make the alien-looking diagrams of hollow spheres seem more familiar and accurate to what I know as an authentic piñata.
“The – hollow – groove – extending -- The hanging -- groove -- tied therein -- the piñata when – mentioned – manufactured – body – piñata -- the -- body is – taken” – Excerpt from redacted patent
The finished redacted document stands as a dissection of the process of erasure; reveals the eerie language that regards piñatas as body’s being hung up and taken. By revealing the language of abuse towards the piñata, we can see how the patent disregards the reality of the piñata and in this absence of reality is where the Mexican narrative starts to develop. It is through its reinsertion that the Mexican nature of the piñata is able to begin to reclaim what has been taken.
These documents showed me the reality of how the archive can conceal and reform the truth. It hides all evidence of severance from tradition and replaces it with language that places the piñata within a legal system it was never meant to inhabit. The act of archiving separates it from the home and allows it to rot as it thinks of the vestiges of the family it was once a part of.
It's Really Hard To Thread A Needle
2019
How do we form identity when we are left alone unable to decipher the relevance of shared histories and lived experience? Our lack of understanding renders our own past inaccessible and forces us to confront the world with what little knowledge that is still untouched. With what is left behind it seems we face a problem of whether we should (or even can) speak of what we will never fully know or if we should risk becoming further estranged from identity through our lack of discourse?
This series of works seeks to answer these questions through the creation of textile and sculptural works that incorporate Mexican aesthetics. Each piece is inspired by a specific memory the artist relates to mexico, by combining these elements and incorporating text the work seeks to find understanding on how identities are formed. the use of wearable items as a bases for each piece allows the artist to explore ideas of performative identity that is placed upon us.
I Cannot Forget My Mores
Fabric, Embroidery Thread
I Cannot Forgo Representation
Red clay, Chicken wire, A bicycle wheel, Wire, Acrylic paint
I Cannot Imagine Anything Taller Than The Trees In My Own Backyard
Faux suede, Embroidery thread, Souvenir Mexican purses
I Cannot Denounce The Institutions Which Form Me
Old shoes, Thread, Shakira glass beads
I Cannot Withdraw from My Own Experiences
2 Rebozos, Thread, Acrylic paint
I Cannot Be More Than I Know
Old sweater, House paint, Acrylic paint
