Hacer es enterrar por ti mismo / to make is to bury oneself

Proposed multimedia installation for exhibition. 2016

Statement

Increasingly we are seeing a new paradigm of global transience where the notion of borders is being continually reinvented, reinforced, and reconsidered. With the rise of Donald Trump in the United States and political realities such as the Brexit vote in the U.K., we are witnessing a renewed discourse regarding border politics.

For this project, I traveled to Puebla, Mexico in the summer of 2016 at the height of the republican primaries in the U.S. when Donald Trump was doubling down on his promises to build “a bigger, beautiful wall” on the border with Mexico. I spent several weeks considering ways to address this notion of building walls to separate us and began making large graphite drawings on basic sheets of 1 x 3 meter basic utilitarian canvass that’s typically used locally in Mexico to make bags to haul grains, beans, and other local products. The drawings were created by using graphite sticks to make impressions, or frottage, on public and private walls, and surfaces of buildings resulting in a ghost or facsimile on the canvass. The drawings were made in sections at many locations throughout the colonial city resulting on something of an exquisite corpse.

The intent was to make large banners that act as suggestions of the layered textures and physical properties that dictate how one occupies urban space. Additionally, I wanted to make a visual record or portrait of the material identity of the public and private spaces in the neighboring nation that Trump and other demagogues are attempting to isolate us from. 

Video

Video of public drawing performances / interventions. Puebla, Mexico. 2016

Works

Graphite and charcoal on canvass, 1 meter x 3 meters, 2016

Image details

Proposed Exhibition

To heighten to tension between the video and the drawings, the two videos will play simultaneously between the hanging drawings on the wall, the edges of the video superimposed just over the edges of the canvasses. Below is a diagram of the exhibition experience