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Description
For a long time I refused the idea of making border art or defining myself as a border artist. Since I am from Tijuana, Mexico, it seemed easier to categorize and sell myself as a female border artist, yet I refused. However, there is an implicit truth to that argument because I am from the border, I was born in the "worst" area of Tijuana (Zona Norte), and from this neighborhood the US border is a landscape motif viewed from almost every angle. Also, my parents worked in San Diego and lived in Tijuana, and every other week I crossed the US/Mexico border with them; as a result, crossing the border became my modus operandi and current life style. The premises of my work are not political, but I consider that my work is about memory, and memory is a strong factor in the creation of sculpture-object art. I keep in my present memory the noise of the border and pedestrians crossing the US/Mexico gate. This noise is embedded into my memory, and I associate this sound with fear and indifference. Several of my sculptures are made in reference to this border gate, sound memory. I am profoundly sad for the constant repeated history of humankind, and the barriers that we construct to divide race, class, economic status, and the distribution of wealth around the world. The US/Mexico gates divide the same ecosystem and the same natural resources, and they mainly divide an ancestral ethnic group innate to this land, the Mexicans. Some of my sculptures make reference to the white-collar worker or man in power, as did the Elizabethan ruffs collars in the perspective of history. I believe we as humans are still colonized by government and by the lack of independent criteria imposed by mass media, global wealth, transnational markets, and first and most importantly by religion and capitalism (government). I also believe that my work is not only about the border, but also about death and the impermanence of the body as time embraces the vulnerable physicality of the human condition. Death is a constant and not a variable path for all humans. My father passed away in December of 2012 from a lethargic death; presently, I am expecting a baby -- birth/death is a duality present in my work and in my life. I also believe that my sculptural work cannot be described by words, neither by idealism, but by the construction of a world of contemplation, object art
