TWO CULTURES, ONE FAMILY B U I L D I N G F A M I LY, F I N D I N G H O M E C U R AT E D B Y D R . E R I K A G I S E L A A B A D
August 30, 2022–January 28, 2023 Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Published by UNLV Integrated Graphics Services Integrated Graphics Services University of Nevada, Las Vegas Box 1028 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy. Las Vegas, NV 89154 Copyright © 2023 Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art University of Nevada, Las Vegas Box 4012 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy. Las Vegas, NV 89154 Artworks by Abayomi Brownfield, Fawn Douglas, Justin Favela, Noelle Garcia, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Q’shaundra James, Lisa Jarret, Keeva Lough, Linda Garcia Merchant, Gabriela Muñoz, Jean Munson, Lyssa Park, Krystal Ramirez, Hector Silva, Rose B. Simpson, Lance L. Smith, Chris E. Vargas, Fortunado Vizcorrando, Xochil Xitlalli © 2021 by Abayomi Brownfield, 2020 by Fawn Douglas, 2018 by Justin Favela, 2015 by Noelle Garcia, 2019 & 2022 by Las Hermanas Iglesias, 2021 by Q’shaundra James, 2022 by Lisa Jarret, 2020 by Keeva Lough, 2020 by Linda Garcia Merchant, 2021 by Gabriela Muñoz, 2022 by Jean Munson, 2021 by Lyssa Park, 2022 by Krystal Ramirez, 2008 & 2009 by Hector Silva, 2021 by Rose B. Simpson, 2019 by Lance L. Smith, 2010 by Chris E. Vargas, Fortunado Vizcorrando, 2018 by Xochil Xitlalli Two Cultures, One Family: Building Family, Finding Home included a link to the poem “¿Y Tu Abuela Donde Esta? (Where is Your Grandmother?),” 1942, by Fortunato Vizcarrondo (1895–1977). https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/ unlvmuseum/news/y-tu-abuela-donde-esta Catalog designed by Alex J. Panzer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Dr. Erika Gisela Abad Excerpt from “On Not Working” Write Where it Hurts, 2016
Artist statments: https://www.artworkarchive.com/ profile/unlvmuseum/exhibition/ two-cultures-one-family-buildingfamily-finding-home
(top) Installation view (bottom) Aurea Abad holding Dr. Erika Abad on her first birthday (February 1983) 1
Lisa Jarret Migration Studies (No. 40), 2022 Mixed media, kanekalon 26” hair, Yasutomo Metallic Gold Black Ink, acrylic, Kozo Paper 50 x 30 x 0.5 in Migration Studies (No. 42), 2022 Mixed media, kanekalon 26” hair, Yasutomo Metallic Gold Black Ink, acrylic, Kozo Paper 50 x 30 x 0.5 in Migration Studies (No. 41), 2022 Mixed media, kanekalon 26” hair, Yasutomo Metallic Gold Black Ink, acrylic, Kozo Paper 50 x 30 x 0.5 in 2
DREAMING BEYOND THE LAMENT BY DR. ERIKA GISELA ABAD
We often defied the dreams US schools taught us to dream while simultaneously challenging the expectations set upon us by the people we chose and the people we came from In light of the Supreme Court case that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade, the homo- and trans-antagonistic policies emerging across the United States, and the environmental injustices that continue to displace Indigenous communities and threaten our access to water, this show ties these issues together in the greater conversation of family. The political moment's relationship to the artwork emerged in talking with friends like Justin Favela and Fawn Douglas or meeting new artists like Lisa Jarrett and Gabriela Muñoz. In some cases, our shared awareness of the United States’s lingering control over Indigenous, Black, and immigrant bodies’ self-determination emerged as moments of connection and solidarity. For many of us, this moment reminded us how frail our civil rights are. Still, for others, these conversations around their work provided an opportunity for us to imagine something hopeful and uplifting, if not an opportunity to share work that honors the families we come from and, in light of normed discrimination, the families we build. In her statement, Keeva Lough explains, "My closest chosen family is made up almost entirely of fellow Queer trans folks. They are the first audience in my mind. That comes with a lot of responsibility.”1 Lough’s sentiment permeates through the artists’ statements, centering communities and voices so minimally considered in other institutions or spaces. Whether speaking of the families they build, their chosen family, or the people they come from, they take on the responsibility because of their privilege. For example, Jarrett explains, “Weaving and braiding allow me to move my hands as many of my ancestors may have, and this contact point provides a type of protection in the present.”2 Each artist speaks to their motivations as a form of protection for themselves and their communities in ways that foreground the meaning of home, family,
1
Lough, Keeva. (2022) Artist statement.
2
Jarrett, Lisa. (2022) Artist statement. 3
and community, that bring into question the valuing of life around policies that undermine people’s rights to define their gender and celebrate their traditions. When thinking about how to bridge what, on the surface, may appear to be different struggles for the community, honoring history, and belonging, Nayyirah Waheed’s “Africa’s Lament” contextualizes what is at stake for people seeking to provide refuge and support for their children. The poem’s narrator starts by speaking about how she cut her legs so that her children could return to her. Waheed writes: where are my legs. i had to give them to my babies so they could swim back home to me. back home to me. back home to me. i rubbed the sun all in their hair. every single birth. i rubbed sun all over their hair. they remembered who they look like.3
Chris E. Vargas Extraordinary Pregnancies, 2010 Video (10:00) 3 Waheed, Nayyirah. (2013) “Africa’s Lament.” Salt reprinted in “Poet’s Corner,” Howl, New York. https://www.howlnewyork.com/post/poets-corner-africa-s-lament 4
Keeva Lough Self-Portrait (Section 1557 Regulation), 2020 Video (2:39)
Waheed discusses how the mother of the poem aims to preserve her children and sacrifices parts of herself to bring them back, but not all of us can go back. Lough’s Self-Portrait repurposes anti-trans legislation by putting it into a visual conversation with “warm, fleshy, vulnerable” visuals.4 “Africa’s Lament” functions similarly, with the title speaking to what, despite the narrator’s efforts, many of us understand to be difficult, if not impossible. Jarrett’s reclamation of practicing ancestral tradition showcases how those of us whose ancestors have left in resistance to their will or because of the inability for a home to take care of them still carry them home with us. Home becomes more than a place in the traditions we keep and the policies we resist and rewrite to center our humanity and self-determination. Part of the struggle with home, with the coming and going and seeking, as I discussed with Linda García Merchant in December 2021, lies in having no one home to return to. Even as we recognize the sacrifices the people we come from made in the hopes that we can return, sometimes we lose the legs and the salt; sometimes the way we look arouses suspicion among those who didn’t have to leave. Chronicling growing up and coming of age in Chicago and California, García Merchant’s No Es Facil uses “media, stills, sound, mapping and voice-over that would tell my history using layers of digital mapping, photographs, found footage,” to explain how and why she became an oral historian chronicling the lives and legacies of Chicana feminists from across the United States.5 4
Lough, Keeva. (2022) Artist statement.
5
Garcia Merchant, Linda. (2022) artist statement. 5
Her narrative responds to Waheed’s narrator’s efforts to bring them back home by highlighting how often the way home requires us to chronicle the work we do to remember and re-member the sacrifices that came before us. Often that chronicling, as I have found in my work, impedes our return home because traveling and storytelling necessitate our nomadism to remember. My nomadism emerged because of how I grew to challenge what my home and family expected of me to stay. Many of the artists empathized with these challenges in our conversations and email exchanges. We often defied the dreams US schools taught us to dream while simultaneously challenging the expectations set upon us by the people we chose and the people we came from. Amid the sacrifice of the people who want us back and the expectations of the people we come from, Jean Munson’s work grappling with secrecy and silence converses with sacrifices that often ask us to do the same. If/when secrets become the tool of survival, many of us living in Diaspora, like Jean Munson, rewrite and reimagine speaking truth to struggle, joy, and kinship in our work. Munson writes: “At that moment, I realized my mom held secrets to keep this image of strength in our minds even as she suffered. As a Filipina in today’s world, I am torn between the woman my mom wants me to be and the woman I want to become: a maternal martyr versus explorer of less-traveled paths.” 6 And oftentimes those less-traveled paths allow us to return home and redefine its significance. That’s why I found Muñoz’s Earth Tattoo so powerful. As she explains in her artist's statement, “she combines earth from the Chihuahuan desert with her own breast milk, using printmaking techniques to print directly onto the skin of the women she photographs, alluding to the deep bonds between mother and child, body and land.”7 Using those ingredients to place the combined image of herself and her daughter onto her mother’s body, she intertwines the nurturing we get from land and breast milk to stress that our fullness comes from acknowledging that we carry our past and future in the present. Muñoz shows what society expects of women, people with uteruses, and the land to give unconditionally in secret and silence. Transformance, the recorded performance designed by Rose B. Simpson, curated by Fawn Douglas, and funded by the Nevada Museum of Art in 2021, complements Earth Tattoo by giving voice to what Muñoz acknowledges is often silenced. Through the collaborative process among Indigenous women 6
Munson, Jean. (2022) Artist statement
7
Muñoz, Gabriela. (2022) Artist statement 6
from Santa Clara Pueblo, Southern Paiute, and other communities, mothers and daughters, along with local friends, worked together to reclaim land and foster sisterhood among each other. After the performance, when Fawn explained how mothers and daughters worked together, my heart grew full because I recognized the ceremony and prayer behind the journey towards performance. In cutting the plastic barrier in the park, Fawn removes an external obstruction between her and her ancestral lands. In short, the collective of performers was answering Waheed’s narrator’s call to return home, stitching together what colonialism and racism aimed to tear apart. Amidst artists with backgrounds and historical legacies different from mine, I found a sense of healing and re-membering. The wounds that drove my career as a scholar-educator have gained a new purpose. While finalizing pieces and putting them on the wall, I saw bits of myself coming together. I found myself feeling whole after so much searching.
Las Hermanas Iglesias ARE WE NOT DRAWN ONWARD TO NEW ERA, 2019 Digital print, open edition. 11 x 17 in
Home becomes more than a place in the traditions we keep and the policies we resist and rewrite to center our humanity and self-determination 7
Jean Munson
Jean Munson
Lola’s Herstory, 2022 Vinyl Dimension varies
Secrets My Mom Keeps, 2020 Glossy paper, 12 pages 5.5 x 8.5 Courtesy of the artist 8
Installation view
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Hector Silva Cinco de Mayo, 2008 Graphite and colored pencil on 2-ply museum board 22 x 28 in
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Linda Garcia Merchant No Es Fácil 2020: Navigating the split seams, cracks and crevasses of a Chicana Feminist Movement, 2020 Short form mixed media experiemental narrative film (15:30) 11
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Abayomi Brownfield
(Opposite right) Abayomi Brownfield
Acts of Unearthing, 2021. Photograph 36 x 30 in
The Water Carries Us, 2021. Photograph 36 x 24 in 13
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Las Hermanas Iglesias with Bodhild Iglesias Capital T, 2022 Acrylic, wool, thread, wood 49 x 36 in
POW, 2022 Acrylic, wool, thread, upholstery tacks 56 x 56 in 15
Red Fence, 2022 Acrylic, wool, thread, plastic 62 x 52 in
Gabriela Muñoz Earth Tattoo #1- Dalila, 2021 C-Print 30 x 45 in 16
Lyssa Park Manicure Gloves, 2021 Fabric and thread 9.5 x 3.5 in 17
Lyssa Park Art Will Be A Good Hobby To Have When Your Kids Are At School (Snake Skin Dress), 2021 Fabric and thread 60 x 30 in
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Justin Favela "Cubre-lavador a (Washing Machine Cover)" Cubreme Con Tus Manto Sagrados (Series), 2018 Yarn and cardboard 48 x 36 x 36 in Courtesy of Brooke Feder and Jesse Stuart 19
Installation view
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Rose B. Simpson Transformance, 2021 Video (7:36)
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Xochil Xitlalli The Wound, 2018 Acrylic on canvas, mixed media 48 x 36 in 23
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Fawn Douglas Genocide, 2020 Mixed media; banner and gown Dimension varies 25
Noelle Garcia Cigarettes, 2015 Glass beads and thread 2.857 x 0.25 x 0.125 in Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection Gift of the artist 2017.22.003 26
Q’shaundra James Resting My Eyes, 2021 Oil on canvas paper 10 x 15.5 in
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Margarita Rivera (curator's grandmother) and Aurea Gisela (curator's mother). Courtesy of the curator. 28
Lance L. Smith When I’m With You (Angela), 2017 Oil on canvas 12 x 12 x 2 in Courtesy of Bryan McCarthy
Lance L. Smith When I’m With You (Dayton), 2017 Oil on canvas 12 x 12 x 1in Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection Gift of the artist. In Memory of Angela C. Smith 2017.17.001 29
Hector Silva Vivan Las Homegirls, 2009 Artist proof, gicleé on paper (1/3) 28 x 20 in 30
Krystal Ramirez On the verge of a nervous breakdown, an identification of Hysteria, 2022 Plexi and transparency film 48 x 72 in 31
As part of the exhibition, the curator invited the audience to respond to this prompt: Family, for each of us, can be a site of love, sacrifice, joy, grief. With compassion and care for all these meanings, we hold the truths you share as sacred. We thank you for using the materials below to share your thoughts and feelings with us as they emerge in the show. Shown are two of the many responses we received.
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MARJORIE BARRICK MUSEUM OF ART
2020. Courtesy of the artist. Page 11 Linda Garcia Merchant. No Es Fácil 2020: Navigating the split seams, cracks and crevasses of a Chicana Feminist Movement (video still), 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Page 13 Abayomi Brownfield. Courtesy of the artist. Page 17 Lyssa Park. Courtesy of the artist. Page 22 Rose B. Simpson. Transformance (video still), 2021. Courtesy of the artist.
The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art believes everyone deserves access to art that challenges our understanding of the present and inspires us to create a future that holds space for us all. Located on the campus of one of the most racially diverse universities in the United States, we strive to create a nourishing environment for those who continue to be neglected by contemporary art museums, including BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ groups. As the only art museum in the city of Las Vegas, we commit ourselves to leveling barriers that limit access to the arts, especially for first-time visitors. To facilitate access for low-income guests we provide free entry to all our exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and community activities. Our collection of artworks offers an opportunity for researchers and scholars to develop a more extensive knowledge of contemporary art in Southern Nevada. The Barrick Museum is part of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Two Cultures, One Family: Building Family, Finding Home was produced with the assistance of the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art staff: Alisha Kerlin, Chloe Bernardo, Paige Bockman, Lauren Dominguez, Tracy Fuentes, LeiAnn Huddleston, Emmanuel Muñoz, and D.K. Sole. Further assistance was provided by the Museum’s volunteers, interns, and GAs: Lille Allen, Michael Freborg, Micah Haji-Sheikh, Andrea Noonoo, Diane Lozano Tovar, Romina Villareal, and Mahtab Zargari. The curator Dr. Erika Abad would like to give special thanks to her mother, Aurea Abad, her sister, Melissa Abad, and her aunt, Cynthia Perry, in addition to the WoCAF collective, her friends and colleagues, Blanca Rincon, Iesha Jackson, and Doris Watson for supporting her throughout this venture.
Alisha Kerlin Chloe J. Bernardo Paige Bockman LeiAnn Huddleston Emmanuel Muñoz D.K. Sole
The exhibition was made possible by The Center, The Intersection, the Psi Upsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Women’s Research Institute of Nevada, and UNLV University Libraries with assistance from Art, Architecture and Design Librarian Richard Saladino.
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art University of Nevada, Las Vegas Box 4012 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy. Las Vegas, NV 89154 702-895-3381 www.unlv.edu/barrickmuseum PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS
Images by Mikayla Whitmore. Courtesy of the artists. Mikayla Whitmore Pages 1 (top), 2, 7–10, 12, 14–16, 18–21, 23–27 and 29–31. Page 1 (bottom) and page 28. Courtesy of Erika Gisela Abad. Edited by Chloe Bernardo. Page 4 Chris E. Vargas. Extraordinary Pregnancies (video still), 2010. Courtesy of the artist. Page 5 Keeva Lough. Self-Portrait (Section 1557 Regulation) (video still), 33
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