January 7 - February 25, 2022
From K Space Contemporary:
“Leila Hernández is an artist, designer, educator and a fervent admirer of popular culture and ancient folklore. A native of El Salvador, Hernández achieved a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Florida and studied art in Europe before settling in Edinburg, Texas. Her artistic style is inspired by her background in handcrafts (Artesanias) and her love of the colors, textures and patterns found in the various places she has lived, visited and studied.
La Visa Negra 2.0: hanging the laundry outside is a collection of visual narratives dealing with time, identity, and place via the cultural crossover between South Texas and Northern Mexico. The base of the conceptual discourse of this work derives from researching and referencing the daily lives and sociopolitical concerns of illegal immigrants living and working in the United States. The media applied in the work is composed mainly of clothing or ropa usada (ropas), as the catalyst for this conversation. This visual observation has transformed the ropas into a media of expression representing the humanized signifier of likely situations as might be experienced by the thousands of nameless and faceless workers or obreros who straddle both sides of the border on a regular basis. The term Visa Negra is the satirical code known among the people crossing the border illegally through the Rio Grande River, and it is the black visa meaning the black inner tube is the only required “paperwork” needed to cross the river.
La Visa Negra 2.0: hanging the laundry outside is composed of three areas: 1) The Tapestries – works created on bed sheets that serve as a metaphor for airing laundry – code for talking publicly about issues that many want to keep quiet or ignore completely. 2) Las Labores – framed quilts, which portray the faceless illegal immigrants arriving to the United States seeking refuge. 3) KoKonetlatok sleeping on the job, the newest series which deals with children who have been lost, stolen, killed, abused and retained at the border. There is also a stand-alone piece titled “A Word on DACA”, referencing the direct political comment regarding the disappearance of an opportunity to the children (known as the Dreamers) brought to the United States by their migrating parents. This piece is inspired by the North American quilting symbol of a “safe house” designed to help runaway slaves escape in the south. “A Word on DACA” is largely created from graduation gowns and honor cords to demonstrate the type of exceptional students that are typically Dreamers. These students are a positive contribution to society but have been let down by negative political influences that have no humanity.
The entire exhibition is sustainable recycled art created from re-purposed clothing gathered from, thrift shops, flea markets (pulgas), and the ropas which are places where clothing is sold by the pound. This exhibition also contains material gathered at the border wall that immigrants use to cross over such as wooden ladders. “
Reception: January 7, 2022 | 5:30–9 pm
415 Starr St # D
Corpus Christi, 78401 TX
(361) 887-6834
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