Symbols From Nepantla: Uncovered Spaces at theInternational Museum of Art & Science in McAllen
by Emireth Herrera Valdés
Uncovered Spaces, An Exhibition and Event Series Centered on Women Artists and LGBTQIA+ Artists, is the most ambitious art project of The Center for Latin American Arts at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. This group show comprises thirteen artists’ talents focusing on gender, migration activism, a longstanding affinity with pre-Hispanic myths, historically-informed investigations of archives, and the reinterpretation of ethnic identity. The theme and works on view are a refreshing initiation of a turnaround, curated by Raheleh Filsoofi of Vanderbilt University and directed by Katherine McAllen of the University of Texas Rio Grande and director of The Center for Latin American Arts. Quoting Filsoofi, “[Uncovered Spaces] creates a space for the artists’ personal histories, coming from different diasporas to overlap, connect, or collide not only within the gallery space, but in the Rio Grande Valley.” This exhibition features a dynamic series of works that coincide, and open the space to non-traditional forms of art whose intrinsic nature is to be fluid and transformative.
The first work to see while entering the gallery is Space in Between - Nopal (Rosa E De Los Santos), 2016, by Margarita Cabrera. The sculptural nopal, or the prickly pear cactus, is Mexico’s patriotic symbol and is made of the uniforms of border patrol agents —emphasizing that they are the protagonists in the migration process. By looking closely at the embroidery of the leaves, we can recognize the emotional life stories of migrants that contain tensions as well as cultural assimilation in the United States. Migrants make their lives between two identities, as natives in one country and as migrants in the other, finding themselves caught in the middle. Cabrera references the word, Nepantla, Aztec Nahuatl for “in the middle.” By giving voice to silenced Mexican migrant laborers, Cabrera exposes their suffering, inequalities, and the structural violence of stereotypes and prejudices that normalize racism. Not only does Space in Between display Cabrera’s searing artistic eye, but it also engages through her activism and political perspective.
By depicting clouds, skies, and mountains, María Fernanda Barrero demonstrates her eager observation and research on our interconnected experiences in nature. The articulation of matter and its expansion in space without borders is a main theme of her oeuvre. A Far Away Storm, 2020, Just Before the Storm, 2019, andSummer Storm, 2019 are two-dimensional works, made of waxed embroidery thread on a wooden surface. The high-quality of the material makes them appear pearlescent in these sophisticated creations. Barrero is replicating the creative process of the Huichol or Wixárika, an indigenous group from Mexico whose crafts are made of beads and thread and inspired by their unique cosmovision. Through some exquisite volumes and with a detailed technique, one can feel as if they can engage with each one of the pieces, entering the thread of the work.
The delicate but exuberant sculpture Horizon Line, 2018 represents a linear fragment created with a 3D printer depicting the Sierra Madre Occidental in Nuevo León.
Mounted on a wooden base, the sculpture seems to float off of the ground. Meanwhile, the cobalt blue wall highlights the fineness of the white mountains and its reliefs and casts a dramatic shadow.
You may touch my dust but please don’t write in it, 2019 by Zac Thompson illustrates a high level of intimacy. Beyond Thompson’s engagement with queerness, the documentation of their performance is an emotionally intense visual encounter. The artist performs Florine Stettheimer’s poem Occasionally, 1949 recited by their mother. One can sense their mother’s adoration for her child through the intonation and resonance of her voice. The artist moves smoothly along a wall symbolizing their room, where a pink flamingo stands out. Additionally, Thompson created a site-specific installation in the gendered bathrooms of the museum featuring fourteen photographs shot with a disposable camera. The installation displays the artist’s friends in a spontaneous setting as a homage to celebrating their queerness and LGBTQIA+ community.
The gallery space bursts with Finding Balance, 2015 by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, a mixed media composition assembled by 29 photographs in a four-by-seven grid. Referencing Santería religious practices, Campos-Pons portrays herself covered in white paint, sitting in a muted but challenging setting. While she is patiently waiting for your response, she is also expecting you to discover numerous knots, cages, and an accumulation of different objects. One feels fascinated by the repetition of a triangular shape in multicolored textiles, the Chinese pottery, and other red shapes and patterns that expand around the image. The work of Campos-Pons conveys an ascendant energy that attracts the viewer’s attention to its center. The eclectic amalgamation of the Campos-Pons’ ancestry of Nigerian, Cuban, and Chinese roots emphasize post-colonial issues through her performative act as ritual and embodiment.
This exhibition has integrated well-rounded experiences for viewers to discover connections among the artists. Such interconnections frame narratives of ritual, identity, and history, in which we locate Passages of Absence, 2018 by Natalia Arbelaez. Inspired by her Colombian roots, Albalalez approaches mythical and surrealist narratives through a burial ritual. Jana Harper, continues the discourse of memory and healing, through a socially-engaged project that involves the participation of art students from the University of Texas Rio Grande. As an ever-changing experience, the show keeps mutating and flowing through the work of each artist as seen in Daisy Patton’s composition: Untitled, 2017. Patton mixes photography with painting to evoke a sentiment of remembrance. Yet what is inspiring is how these foregrounds relevant topics such as feminism and gender.
Throughout the exhibition space, we observed that some pieces are filled with a pulsating energy and vivid colors, while others are subtle and meditative.
Both leave the observer with the inquisitive provocation on how these pieces challenge our mindset surrounding gender, social expectations, space, and cultural diasporas. Through the work Centuripe Series: Weights and Bobbers, 2019 and Centuripe Series: Oil Lamps, 2019, Lauren Sandler utilizes the vessel to reflect on the value of labor, commodification, and disposability in a capitalist era within a ceramic medium that has been created as an artform for millennia. Vesna Pavlovic presents the photographic installation Search for Landscapes, 2011, a series of continuous projections of travel images and framed experiences to highlight the free movement that existed in the past in the United States and throughout the world.
Wendy Red Star portrays herself and her daughter wearing traditional elk dresses in Appsáalooke Feminist #1, 2016. With such candor and symbolism, her photographic portrait explores Crow ancestry and the importance of matrilineality in their tribe. Melissa Potter’s short film Marilyn’s Paper, 2020 demonstrates the artist’s drive to recover and display the legacy of Marilyn Sward. Linda Behar’s work, 385-miles, 2019 honors five million Indian women who formed a human chain in the streets of India to claim gender equality. We also encounter an elegant and empowering piece by Erika Diamond, Eggshell Garment for Hugging II, 2015. Occupying two spaces exploring queerness with thought provoking metaphors, one of strength and armor, the other of delicacy and vulnerability, Diamond creates a double narrative of self-protection and exposure that is invoked thoughtfully in this garment.
Uncovered Spaces strips any taboos and misconceptions regarding gender and the LGBTQIA+ community, race, ethnicity, and migration, beyond the walls of the museum. What makes this exhibition unique is its impact on the community of the Rio Grande Valley, a city on the Southern border whose history is based on migration, displacement, and mobility. Borders are commonly perceived as a transitory space, whose extreme duality relies on its geography that is as harsh as it is dry. People’s experiences could be welcoming or disapproving. Visiting Uncovered Spaces is an illuminating opportunity to develop multiple dialogues. The exhibition is on view from March 26th through July 10th, 2022 at The International Museum of Art & Science in McAllen, Texas.
https://theimasonline.org/uncovered-spaces/ and https://www.utrgv.edu/claa/exhibitions/uncovered-spaces/index.htm
María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Finding Balance, 2015, mixed media, Photo Carlos Limas.
Margarita Cabrera, Space in Between - Nopal (Rosa E De Los Santos), 2016, mixed-media, dimensions variable. Photo Carlos Limas.
Erika Diamond, Eggshell Garment for Hugging II, 2015, eggshells stitched between layers of tulle, photo Carlos Limas.
Exhibition view, María Fernanda Barrero, Horizon Line, 2018, Wendy Red Star, Appsáalooke Feminist #1, 2016, Daisy Patton, Untitled, 2017, Photo Carlos Limas.