The work created for Regata Abcisa is a commission by the Oceanside Public Library and the Big Read program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Oceanside’s Big Read: Novel ‘Into The Beautiful North’ by Luis Alberto Urrea is selected, the story is set in Mexico, and then the United States after the main character Nayeli journeys north-seeking seven of her village’s best fighters who have gone to the U.S.
The concrete maps in the installation are Nayelis' geographical journeys as she travels from her village in Sinaloa to Tijuana and San Diego, and ultimately deeper into the U.S. before she returns home. The maps are - Sinaloa, Baja California and California- the three maps paradoxically have an almost mirror boot like-shape form.
Nayeli’s journey is connected with elastic slings, suggesting the bouncing and volatile changes in our borders. The work presented in this exhibition echoes her story by underscoring the chaotic breakdown of class and race structures after colonialism, territorialism, and human mobility.
The installation created for the Big Read program was exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art
2020 Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA