Latinexodus
Latinexodus
February 10 - April 4, 2020
Hoesy Corona Lizanian Cruz Luis Sahagun René Treviño Nora Valdez The artists in this exhibition, most of whom are immigrants themselves, create work that explores the struggles of being and belonging. Their work also counters the monolithic histories of our immigrant nation, combines Mesoamerican visual artifacts with contemporary culture, and hopefully generates new ways of thinking and seeing. The long history of our continent as well as the current events of its page 1
northern and southern nation states and their relationships play into this work.
Norton, published in January 2020.2 This meddling in the popular, elected and internationally recognized government of a foreign nation has come at a time when the US government is defunding social programs at home and increasing the severity of punishments for asylum seekers entering the country. According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR): “In early 2018, [the Trump Administration] implemented what it called a zero-tolerance policy, in which authorities arrested and
It is the former that grounds the artwork in its American-ness, and the latter that makes it relevant and interesting to us here and now.
prosecuted everyone caught crossing the southern border without authorization. As parents faced criminal prosecution, they were held apart from their children. In July
No one expected immigration to be the rallying cry of the 2016 republican presidential run, but it was precisely this platform that helped Donald Trump get elected. Both those on the right and left in US politics have used the public’s fear of unchecked immigration for political gain, but our current president has made it a more visible and louder issue that it has been in recent times. This volume increase within American politics, which has coincided with more turbulent politics in Central and South America, has proved to be a tragic combination. Violent protests in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, have displaced millions, while increased gang violence and corruption leading to extreme poverty have created such things as the now wellknown “migrant caravan” in 2018 of displaced people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Why has political and social turmoil been on the rise in recent times South of the border? According to María Victoria Murillo the director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, “First, a backlash against different forms of redistribution heightened social polarization based on class, ethnicity or gender. Second, corruption scandals spreading throughout the region contributed to the disappointment of a citizenry who had been promised democratic equality, but discovered that the rules of the game could be different for political and economic elites.”1 Some of the upheaval and unrest in South America, however, is not without a direct connection to the United States. Between 2017 and 2019 “the Trump administration spent at least $654 million on Venezuela-related aid schemes. While Washington claims this spending assisted humanitarian efforts, much of the US taxpayers’ money financed efforts to destabilize and ultimately overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro,” according to an article in The GrayZone by Ben
1 From “Why Is South America In Turmoil? An Overview” in Americas Quarterly, November 19, 2019 https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/why-south-america-turmoil-overview
2019, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general reported overcrowding and prolonged detentions at CBP facilities, and investigators found that detainees, including children, were sometimes held without access to beds, showers, or clean clothes for weeks.”3
Despite these draconian measures to keep migrants, immigrants, and asylum seekers out, the CFR also reports: “A 2019 Gallup poll found that 76 percent of Americans considered immigration a good thing for the United States. As many as 81 percent supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants if they meet certain requirements. A 2016 Gallup poll found that among Republicans, support for a path to citizenship (76 percent) was higher than support for a proposed border wall (62 percent).”4 As we know to be true in our own community, immigrants and migrants are an enmeshed and integral part of the United States, both economically and socially. On the eastern shore, for example, many farmers depend on migrant labor to harvest crops and many Maryland crab houses in depend on immigrants to pick crabs. Recently, according to a Baltimore Sun article, Governor Larry Hogan authored a letter to “the federal labor secretary and acting homeland security secretary requesting that they take immediate action to increase the number of visas the U.S. provides to temporary foreign workers…Without these temporary workers, the governor wrote in his Jan. 21 letter, ‘local seafood processors will be unable to open for business or be forced to significantly reduce their operations. Another year of hardship could permanently damage Maryland’s sustainable seafood industry, causing these iconic family and 2 From "While Trump cuts food stamps, USAID bankrolls Venezuela regime change with half a billion in tax dollars," by Ben Norton, published on The GrayZone, January 23, 2020 https://thegrayzone.com/2020/01/23/usaid-venezuela-regime-change-trump/ 3 From Renewing America "The U.S. Immigration Debate" by Claire Felter and Danielle Renwick, Last updated July 25, 2019; published on the CFR website: https://www.cfr.org/ backgrounder/us-immigration-debate-0 4 ibid page 2
small businesses to close or constrict, which would have a devastating impact on commerce and jobs, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas of the state.’”5 It is precisely this convoluted situation that guided the formation of this exhibition. Immigration is not an easy or clear issue and what often gets lost in the political rhetoric and the bureaucracy is the humanity of the people who have been displaced from their homes, in search of safety and prosperity. These artists offer a more nuanced view of how cultures blend, identities shift, and lives are affected in this turbulent 21st century place we call the Americas. LIZANIA CRUZ, a New York-based designer, artist, entrepreneur, and Dominican immigrant, offers us Flowers for Immigration. These photographs of bouquets simultaneously carry the stories of human and floral migration. “Cruz invites undocumented bodega flower workers to participate in making a flower arrangement in response to Donald 5 From "Maryland's quest for crab pickers underscores how immigrants boost U.S. economy" by the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, Baltimore Sun, January 23, 2020 https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0127-immigrant-visascrabs-20200123-c3bgp35rzfbppe4djs3zth5jn4-story.html
Trump’s immigration policy. Every day these workers design flower arrangements for New Yorkers to use as a means of expressing themselves. How can these bodega workers have the same opportunity of self-expression? Flowers for Immigration questions how to create empathy for these workers without revealing their faces, which have already been subject to so much bias. Cruz photographs the flower arrangements composed by undocumented bodega workers in order to represent their humanity and amplify their voices in a visible way.”6 HOESY CORONA is an emerging and uncategorized queer Mexican artist living and working in the United States. His Climate Ponchos, which are part of a larger body of work titled, Climate Immigrants, draws attention to the disproportionate effect of climate change on black and brown peoples and the close connections between the effects a changing climate and those forced to flee their places of origin. “CLIMATE-IMMIGRANTS (2016-Present) is a multimedia installation and performance that considers the impending plight of climate-induced global migration 6 Taken from the artist's website, http://www.lizania.com
Lizania Cruz, "Flowers for Immigration: Viviana Cover and Arrangement", 2017 page 3
and environmental injustice. CLIMATE-IMMIGRANTS performances have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Athens School of Fine Arts, Siren Arts, and the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building.”7
Hoesy Corona, "The Future is Now and I am It: a parade to mark the moment", curated by Carrie Mae Weems, The Reach at The Kennedy Center, 2019
and its effects on people of color. The performers wear “CLIMATEPONCHOS”, which feature vinyl cutout silhouettes that display a long-distance exodus of displaced communities of people. The interactive objects are adorned with images that depict the archetypal “traveler,” the subjects are portrayed while in unilateral transition, wearing backpacks and hats, carrying suitcases and holding children. The viewer witnesses the silent movements of anonymous persons in context with sound and video which conceptualizes the nuanced experience of migrant travel that is initiated by climate change
LUIS SAHAGUN is a Chicago-based artist and teacher, born in Mexico and a naturalized US citizen. His drawings, sculptures, paintings, and performances confront the palpable inescapability of race and transforms art into an act of cultural reclamation. Like DNA strings of mestizaje, his practice metaphorically represents contradiction — Indian/conqueror, violence/unity, and ancient/ contemporary. His work embodies a visual language of cultural resistance that counters the traditional white, male, heterosexual
7 Taken from the artist's website, http://hoesycorona.com
Luis Sahagun, "Brown Rainbow" cardboard and acrylic 2014
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René Treviño, "Walls of the Yucatan", acrylic on Dura-lar, 2019
art historical canon. Read more about Luis’ work in the interview on page 9. RENÉ TREVIÑO is a gay Mexican-American artist, who was born in Texas, and is currently living and working in Baltimore. He writes that he has “always felt excluded and underrepresented by history.” He goes on, “By using a historical context as a backdrop for my work, I can reweave these 'lessons' of the past. My work is an attempt to make our already complicated history even more complicated. The more layers that I present, the closer I can get to something that might resemble truth.” The two bodies of work on view in this exhibition both comment on our current historical moment when truth seems up for grabs as people rise to contest institutions of power that are trying to write the narrative as they see fit. He writes of his Walls of the Yucatán series: “Nationally, we have been having a lot of conversations about walls and borders. Who has access? Who gets to permeate these barriers? I made these paintings from a series of photographs I took while traveling to ancient Mayan sites throughout the Yucatán Peninsula. I was drawn to these walls from Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum and to these handmade bricks and stones. In Mayan times these would have been covered over with Stucco. Because these sites are now ruins, the stucco has eroded away and reveals these
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René Treviño, "Walls of the Yucatan (Ultramarine)" acrylic on Dura-lar, 2019
amazing, very human surfaces. I love imagining the hands that made them and the way they might have looked at the height of the Mayan Empire.”8 NORA VALDEZ is an international award-winning sculptor from Argentina, working and exhibiting since 1977. An immigrant herself, Valdez explores the theme of the immigrant and the impact of their journeys from a personal perspective. Her work recalls and investigates the difficult road endured by those seeking the safety and rootedness of home. Moving from one culture to another—without belonging to any one place—they carry their beliefs, their customs, and their humanity with them on their pilgrimage to a new life. She writes the following about her approach to art-making: “I use sculpture and installations to create images that reflect on the nature of change, the life of the individual, and the forces that buffet our souls. For the past years my work has focused on the nature of home and the immigrant experience, recreating in my art the hard road of those caught within alien systems seeking the rootedness of home. I sculpt the human figure and related objects in symbolic narratives, often informed by my dreams or my own experiences. My thematic concerns are also reflected in my involvement with the community, doing public art projects and giving workshops at a variety of urban institutions. For me Art is a way to explore issues of human rights and to have a direct and profound effect on them.”9 8 Taken from the artist's statement and website, www.renetrevino.com 9 Taken from the artist's website, www.noravaldez.com
Nora Valdez, "Cuore Series", 2015
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Argentina
Using this map, write in the names of countries & color them in!
Latin America is a diverse place with many different countries, languages, and cultures!
¡Complete the Map!
All the artists in this exhibition have Latin American heritage. This means that either they or their ancestors were born in a Latin American country. When they make art, they make connections between their past and the present.
¿Did You Know?
Uruguay Venezuela
Suriname
Puerto Rico
Paraguay Peru
Panama
Nicaragua
Mexico
Honduras Jamaica
Haiti
Guyana
Guatemala
French Guiana
Ecuador
Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador
Chile Colombia
Brazil
Bolivia
Belize
Kids' Corner
An Interview with Luis Sahagun by Mehves Lelic Mehves Lelic: Your cardboard paintings seem to conjure a physical representation of history – they are layered, you’ve inflicted various forms of physical trauma on them, and they seem very sturdy. Can you elaborate on how you conceive of this history? To what extent is it personal, communal, generational? Luis Sahagun: Thank you for the great interpretation of my cardboard paintings. Within the art world, it is commonly stated that art is a language. I completely agree with that statement, but it took me a while to both be able to understand and develop my own version. When I started using cardboard in 2011, I was interested in it for its color. I saw it as a surrogate for brown bodies, my brown body. It took years for me to finally realize that my cardboard series in all of its various physical manifestations (elegant, balanced, messy, beautiful) were vessels for my pain. Put your heart and soul into it! I would hear that saying a lot as a kid. I was always curious as to what that exactly means. What does it mean to put your soul into something? What is a soul? Where does it come from? What does it look like? In my cardboard paintings I was searching for myself, searching for my soul. I believe that the most powerful art I have seen always starts from the personal and extends to the public. By me focusing on myself, my pain, my healing, the work becomes accessible to people, because we all have wounds that need healing. We all speak the language of pain. By focusing on me, I focus on people. By focusing on my pain, I shine light to oppression. By focusing on my healing, I spotlight self-care and love. In times of political turmoil, racial and economic divide, pain is our north star that helps guide us back to our humanity. ML: Your own account of your work, as well as some reviews, describe it as a form of cultural reclamation; a response to generations of displacement, disconnect and colonial, economic, social and environmental oppression. In the modern age, what does healing look like? LS: Art has given me the opportunity to learn about myself and the world around me. I can’t speak about collective healing, but on a personal level I believe that art has the power to heal, because it has healed me. My art process is healing, it’s magic, it’s alchemy. I mix dust, water, pigments, and other various materials to create something new. I break in order to rebuild. Healing for me looks messy and the only way I know how to heal is to confront pain via a slow and ugly manner in order to break through it. That’s how I turn pain to power. ML: In addition to your artistic practice, I have the privilege of knowing you are a stellar educator! Can you talk about how working with younger kids, often from underserved communities, fits into your practice? page 9
Luis Sahagun, "From the Beginning (Self-Portrait)" cardboard, acrylic and charcoal, 2012
LS: Kids give me hope. I see my students as an extended family, realizing that I learn from them as much as they learn from me. I also find that I have insurmountable patience for them. Whether we speak about very complex issues such as race, class, and gender or if we analyze what makes a dumb painting dumb, I am always eager to actively listen and understand their perspective because I value their voices tremendously. This is especially true when working with underserved communities. You know, I grew up in the U.S feeling invisible to society beacuse I was brown, undocumented, and poor. And, those lived experiences are what now make me privy to perceptions that most educators in academia or insitutitions lack. I use the residue of my traumas as inspiration to guide my hand and mind into developing art-based discussions, lesson plans, and workshops. Working with kids as an educator has taught me that art is a powerful tool that can be used as a catalyst for empowerment, social justice, and empathy. This is why now when I create a painting, sculpture, performance, or drawing, I am always thinking of educational components that may accompany the work. I constantly ask myself, what would a 5th grader think about this sculpture? How can I use symbols or metaphors in my work that can potentially spark discussions about social issues? ML: What’s your next project? (If you are comfortable sharing it, of course.) LS: The project I am most excited about is a syllabus I am currently developing for a social justice & practice class that strictly uses Latinx artists, poets, and activists within its pedagogical framework. My long term goal is to have an extensive scholarly Latinx archive that counters the traditional, white, heterosexual art history academic canon. I am excited to continue my research and learn about more artists and social movements from countries in South America, the U.S and Mexico and to specifically use their experiences and art to help build a road map for social change in this country. ML: What are you reading/looking at/listening to these days? LS: Recently I have been reading a food blog and IG handle, Molded Glories or moldedglories.com. It is really absurd, funny, unique, and refreshing. As an educator, artist, and community organizer it can be hard managing day to say stress, so I embark on reading things that are outside of the visual art world. This particular blog is really artistic in the sense that the author writes about food and tasting as a painter would about paint, form, materiality, and self-indulgences. It makes for a fun read during my coffee ritual in the mornings (and evenings). page 10
Latinexodus February 10 - April 4, 2020 University Gallery
www.suartgalleries.org 410.548.2547