UnDocumenta
Curated by Alessandra
Moctezuma
Through January 28,
2018
Article by Cathy Breslaw
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| Ana Teresa Fernandez Borrando la Frontera (Erasing the Border) video |
The Getty Museum has
spearheaded and provided several grants for a large set of exhibitions and
collaborations known as Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. This ambitious project
provides an awareness and dialogue across southern California about Latin
American and Latino Art. From September 2017 through January 2018, Oceanside
Museum is one of more than 70 cultural institutions in the region to
participate. Organized and curated by Alessandra Moctezuma, UnDocumenta
includes the work of six artists who wrestle with issues of immigration and the
border, biculturalism, migration,
labor issues and human
rights. Expressing themselves through video, photography, sculpture, social
engagement, performance and interactivity, the work of these contemporary
Mexican, Latino and American artists from both Tijuana and San Diego provides
fertile ground for important conversations that beg to be had in a geographic
area where shifting cultural identities and nationalities are at the forefront
of challenging social and political debate. Omar Pimienta’s Welcome to
Colonia Libertad is a participatory
art piece that replicates the bureaucratic practice of acquiring passports.
Pimienta sets up ‘mobile consulates’ where he exchanges a visitor’s expired
passport and trades it for an artistic faux passport together with their new
photograph and fingerprints,giving them access to his Tijuana neighborhood of
Colonia Liberdad. Teresita de la Torre’s
365 Days in an Immigrant’s Shirt pays homages to undocumented migrants by
wearing a plaid shirt everyday for a year – a shirt she discovered while
volunteering for an organization that leaves jugs of drinking water in the
desert for migrants trying to cross the border. Her process is documented in
photographs and a sketchbook from her daily postings.
Claudia Cano uses
public performance by dressing up as a house-keeper/cleaning lady named Rosa
Hernandez. Clad in a pink maid’s
uniform, apron and wig, Cano sweeps public spaces including a park, museum and
adjacent to the border wall, demonstrating through photographs her invisibility
to oblivious onlookers, and highlighting the importance of immigrant workers to
our economy. Ana Teresa Fernandez’s video projection Borrando la Frontera shows
the artist in a cocktail dress and high heels , climbing ladders as she
attempts to paint the border fence in Playa de Tijuana a light powder blue
creating an illusion of a disappearing border fence. Dominic Paul Miller
created a trans-border community partnership with Tijuana’s labor rights group
Ollin Calli. Using grant funds, Miller paid workers from Mexican maquiladoras
to collaborate with him on his art project - a social engagement between
factory labor and production, the result creating a series individual drawings.
There is also a wall in the gallery where Miller documents the specific
backgrounds of his Mexican participants, revealing the personal identity of his
collaborators. Marcos Ramirez Erre installed a site specific piece by erecting
a metal façade on the outside of the museum mimicking the border fence. This
worthy and engaging exhibition tackles contentious topics in visually and
intellectually stimulating ways. Several associated events are planned and can
be accessed online at: www.oma-online.org/calendar
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| Claudia Cano Rosa Hernandez. La Chacha (The Cleaning Lady) photograph |
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| Teresita de la Torre 365 Days in an Immigrant's Shirt photograph |
