Installed at El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Tin foil, fabric flowers, fabric, light, sequins, tassels, fringe. 2020
ALTAR INSTALLATIONS: POR VIDX
Por Vidx is a collaborative ongoing installation project that seeks to artistically interpret the altar. Por Vidx’s altars make use of traditional and nontraditional found and hand-made objects. In this project, the artists engage with the beauty of grief and remembrance utilizing the dedication of craft technique and sculpture.
Disco ball, fabric flowers, pom poms, doilies, tin foil, tinsel, sequins. w10’ x h10’ x 10’, 2018
Dia de Los Muertos is a multi-day holiday, celebrated in early November throughout LatinX cultures especially in Mexico, where it originated. It draws on indigenous Mexican traditions and is observed throughout the world particularly by people of Mexican ancestry. Di de Los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. Alters are a typical cultural form of recognition of the dead during this holiday. These alter installations take into account Mexican and LatinX traditions while also cross-pollinating said traditions with queer and trans histories, aesthetics and practices. Recalling members of the queer community we have lost and celebrating them while also demonstrating an intersectional queer utopian impulse toward remembering our ancestors while fighting for the future.
Coyote skin, preserved insects, crystals, tin foil, dried flowers, pom poms, mirror, fabric. w6’ x h10’ x d4’, 2018
Dia de Los Muertos is a multi-day holiday, celebrated in early November throughout LatinX cultures especially in Mexico, where it originated. It draws on indigenous Mexican traditions and is observed throughout the world particularly by people of Mexican ancestry. Di de Los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. Alters are a typical cultural form of recognition of the dead during this holiday. These alter installations take into account Mexican and LatinX traditions while also cross-pollinating said traditions with queer and trans histories, aesthetics and practices. Recalling members of the queer community we have lost and celebrating them while also demonstrating an intersectional queer utopian impulse toward remembering our ancestors while fighting for the future.
Pom poms, fabric, tassels, sequins. w6’ x h10’ x d4’, 2018
Dia de Los Muertos is a multi-day holiday, celebrated in early November throughout LatinX cultures especially in Mexico, where it originated. It draws on indigenous Mexican traditions and is observed throughout the world particularly by people of Mexican ancestry. Di de Los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. Alters are a typical cultural form of recognition of the dead during this holiday. These alter installations take into account Mexican and LatinX traditions while also cross-pollinating said traditions with queer and trans histories, aesthetics and practices. Recalling members of the queer community we have lost and celebrating them while also demonstrating an intersectional queer utopian impulse toward remembering our ancestors while fighting for the future.
Lights, fabric, crystals, pom poms, fringe, mirror, cloth. w6’ x h8’ x d10’, 2017
Dia de Los Muertos is a multi-day holiday, celebrated in early November throughout LatinX cultures especially in Mexico, where it originated. It draws on indigenous Mexican traditions and is observed throughout the world particularly by people of Mexican ancestry. Di de Los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. Alters are a typical cultural form of recognition of the dead during this holiday. These alter installations take into account Mexican and LatinX traditions while also cross-pollinating said traditions with queer and trans histories, aesthetics and practices. Recalling members of the queer community we have lost and celebrating them while also demonstrating an intersectional queer utopian impulse toward remembering our ancestors while fighting for the future.
Installed in what was once a bank vault this alter highlights the tension between who and what is valued in contemporary U.S. culture. Moreover, how the devaluation of certain lives is in direct relation to the colonization of the United States and centuries of capitalist expansion. At the expense of indigenous communities, working and poor people and queer people of color in particular.