Description
Doméstic/a is a contrived word through association of routinely amalgamating languages: English and Spanish. Domestic comes from the Latin word domesticus: relative to the house, family or nation. Doméstica in Spanish is a household employee who is also called a maid, usually female, that provides domestic services in exchange for money. Domestic/a is an exhibition occupying two of the four partitions of the University Gallery where the space is contemplated as a gallery-domestic environment. In the first part of the exhibition Rosa Hernandez -the cleaning lady, my alter ego, inhabits the space. A collection of five large format photographs document the performances of Rosa in different scenarios and activities. In front of the photographs a worn-out kitchen table displays a spectrum of content with the postcards, flyers, cleaning gloves, scapulars and collected trash supplement the archives of Rosa’s performances. Opposite the photographs a couch facing a TV monitor invites the audience to view two ad commercials, reflecting on the disparity of social class, race and labor. A radio located on the opposite side of the gallery is playing, promoting fictional products to challenge and make evident the language/political barriers confronted by marginalized communities in their day-to-day lives. “Retratos de Limpieza” and “Manteles” invite the viewer to reflect on the idea of everyday objects—objets trouvés as artwork. The Mexican iconography provides a cultural context as a construction of visual pluralism, a celebration of cultural diversity.
