RAÍCES (ROOTS) 2019
Originally commissioned by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art for the “Counter Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s - Now” Exhibition in 2019 curated by Jennifer McCabe. Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
Felt, thread, cotton yarn, wooden spools, and plaster feet.
When you pull a plant from the soil, the network of roots reveals a cartography of growth and sustenance within the soil. In Spanish, the word soil translates to tierra, with rich connotations such as “mi Tierra” (my homeland) or more literally: “my soil.” In “Raíces,” I present a family portrait of myself between my two grandmothers. Sculptural coiled roots reference our bodies as they hang exposed and layered above plaster casts of our feet. My grandmothers’ gnarled feet – alongside my own – bear evidence to the interrupted motion of our lives, and to our attempt to find ground again in our adopted countries.
Raíces was also part of the “New Worlds—Women to Watch 2024” at The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, curated by Virginia Treanor & Orin Zahra.
Photographs by Claire A. Warden