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Art or Exploitation : Living as an Immigrant in Corona, Queens

4 Jun 2011

Full disclosure : I am a resident of Corona, Queens and partially grew up in this neighborhood. So perhaps my critique, concern, and commentary comes from a personal place. I also acknowledge that I am not an immigrant. My parents came to the U.S. from Puerto Rico so their immigrant experience is different than that of the immigrants that live in Corona, Queens. I own that as well.

I was supposed to participate in a poetry event today at Immigrant Movement International, just a few blocks from where I live.
I wondered what was this organization that I was being invited to share space with? I have lived at my current address in Corona for a number of years and had never seen or heard of it. Also many years of being involved in the Latino social justice movement here in NYC had me thinking I was pretty aware of the different organizations doing work.

Turns out Immigrant Movement International isn’t so much of a movement but rather the art project of one Cubana, Tania Bruguera.

From her website on the project :

Tania Bruguera’s Immigrant Movement International, presented by Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art, is a long-term art project in the form of an artist-initiated socio-political movement. Bruguera will spend a year operating a flexible community space in the multinational and transnational neighborhood of Corona, Queens, which will serve as the movement’s headquarters. Engaging both local and international communities, as well as working with social service organizations, elected officials, and artists focused on immigration reform, Bruguera will examine growing concerns about the political representation and conditions facing immigrants.

As one of those artists, I decided not to engage Immigrant Movement International, in fact this blog post will be the extent of my engagement save when I pass the building when I am walking with my children to the park. I have to worry about the mobile police unit on my corner, how to pay for my own unfunded art space/home, and if a crime against a Latino family friend 20 years ago- an immigrant on immigrant crime if you will- well ever see justice.

Just as adventure tourism that claims to give a “border crossing experience” is problematic, so is an art project that claims to be movement.

By engaging the local community through public workshops, events, actions, and partnerships with immigrant and social service organizations, Immigrant Movement International will explore who is defined as an immigrant and the values they share, focusing on the larger question of what it means to be a citizen of the world. Bruguera will also delve into the implementation of art in society, examining what it means to create “Useful Art”, and addressing the disparity of engagement between informed audiences and the general public, as well as the historical gap between the language used in what is considered avant-garde and the language of urgent politics.

Since when is a funded art project coming into a neighborhood a movement?
Read more…

Tamayo Paintings Sold for Millions

11:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|Culture|mexico|New York · Comments Off

30 May 2008

capt.3d91ef4fe9244b0797591c4eb71d0705.latin_american_art_nyr103.jpg Mexican master painter Rufino Tamayo is known worldwide for his amazing work, though not necessarily as famous in the U.S. as other Mexican artists who have had a lot marketing dollars behind them. But appreciation for Tamayo’s work has been shown this week in New York, at least in terms of dollars:

The painting “The Watermelon Eater” sold today for a final price of 3.6 million dollars, with commission included, during a Latin American art auction in Sotheby’s New York headquarters.

But that was a meager amount in comparison to the Tamayo piece “Trovador”, which sold on Wednesday for some 7.2 million dollars. That sale has established a new world sales record for the auction of a piece of Latin American art.

Via / El Universal

Prominent Latino scupltor dies in accident

6:57 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Arts · 1 Comment

15 Jun 2006

Luis Jimenez, one of the country’s foremost Latino sculptors died on Tuesday, the victim of an accident involving a piece of art he had been working on for over a decade; a monumental piece called “Mustang”. In a strange twist of fate, Jimenez was putting finishing touches on his piece when the unthinkable happened:

Tuesday morning, Jimenez and two assistants were working on Mustang in his Hondo, N.M., studio. Photographer Delilah Montoya, Jimenez’s close friend and UH colleague, said the horse’s head was finished, and he was beginning to give the body its final coat of paint.

A piece of the sculpture came loose from a hoist, “striking Jimenez and pinning him to the steel support,” the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office report said.

Jimenez had been involved in a decade-long battle with the commissioners of the piece for late delivery of Mustang, and was just about to free himself of the situation when the accident occurred.

Jimenez was committed to telling the story of his culture: a son of immigrants who crossed the border into the U.S., according to friends he never let that fall by the wayside:

“El Paso is the Ellis Island of the South, and Luis was the native son who never failed to make the right choice.”

Via / Houston Chronicle

Photo credit: Ricardo T Barros via ASMP.org

Frida’s “Roots” sets record

6:12 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Arts · Comments Off

29 May 2006

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s piece entitled “Roots” has set a record for being the most expensive Latino painting sold to date:

A painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold for $5.6-million (U.S.), setting a new record for the artist and for a Latin American work of art at auction.

Roots, among Kahlo’s few full-length self-portraits, was sold to an anonymous phone bidder at Sotheby’s auction house Wednesday evening. The 1943 oil-on-metal shows the artist reclining in a bright orange dress with leafy roots growing out of her body into the ground — a symbol of being nourished by the Earth. It had never before appeared on the public market, Sotheby’s said.

The previous record for a Latin American work of art at auction also was for a Kahlo work, Self-Portrait, executed in 1929. It sold for $5-million, Sotheby’s said.

Via / Globe and Mail

Documenting the undocumented

4:39 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Arts|Immigration · Comments Off

5 Apr 2006

Ever wonder what it’s really like to be an immigrant on the border? What about what it’s like to be a Minuteman? The creators of The Border Film Project, a photography project like none other I’ve seen, goes beyond the images we see in mainstream media to let the two groups tell their stories in photos. I wish I would have thought of this:

We are three friends – a Rhodes Scholar, filmmaker, and a Wall Street analyst – who spent three months on the U.S. Mexico border filming and distributing hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the line: undocumented migrants crossing the desert and Minutemen volunteers trying to stop them.

The project looks to portray the reality of the border and it does a great job at that. The immigrant photos are a mixed bag of strikingly “normal” everyday photos — some even showing happiness — to shocking and disturbing. They tend to photograph things around them; snakes, plants, their homes, while the Minutemen take more pictures of themselves and their activities, such as target practice and manning a radio.

Met Offers Art in Spanish

11:54 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|children|Events|Family|New York City · Comments Off

9 Jan 2006

The world famous Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in New York City, to make sure that children and their families have access to the world of fine arts regardless of what language is spoken. The Education Department of the Met is sponsoring a Spanish language program named El primer contacto con el arte. The lectures and activities are being held every Saturday from 11:30 a.m. a 1:00 p.m. in the Uris Education Center and are open to children between 6 and 12 years of age accompanied by one adult. Each month a new artistic theme or time period is studies. In January the theme is The Renaissance in Europe. The program is scheduled to run through May and is free with paid admission to the museum. For more information regarding these and other programs call (212) 650-2833 or visit www.metmuseum.org.

Via / El Diario NY

VL Interview: Missing Stereotypes Doesn’t Miss the Point

8:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts · 1 Comment

28 Nov 2005

Bill Fisher and Chicano Richard A. Lou, both artists, collaborated on creating public art that deconstructed the very public tale of Jennifer Wilbanks, the white runaway bride who used the media and wove a story about being kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic man instead of telling the truth.

Border Sneakers

10:05 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|Arts|Immigration · 8 Comments

22 Nov 2005

We’ve all heard of the evils of sneaker companies and their tendency to use sweatshop labor but Brooklyn artist Judith Werthein is showing that making sneakers can also form a part of social activism.

Werthein, an Argentinian, has made a total of one thousand pairs of sneakers named Brinco catering to the needs of immigrants.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

Werthen is selling them as a part of a San Diego art exhibit focusing on the border region, but also giving them away. About four hundred of the sneakers have been given to immigrants making the jump to the United States. One of the beneficiaries of the sales of these sneakers in the U.S. is Casa del Migrante, a Tijuana shelter.

I cannot encourage illegal immigration…I am an artist and I just did a piece on a subject that raised a lot of questions on things that are worth thinking about.

Via / MSNBC

Chicano People Time

10:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|Entertainment · Comments Off

19 Oct 2005

Using the words of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, 12 Chicano artists painted their own reality by participating in the creation of the 2006 Año Tochtli Chicano Calendar. Each month features the work of a fames Chicano artist including Lalo Alcaraz, Dolores Gonzalez Haro, and Linda Vallejo. The Año Tochtli (Year of the Rabbit) 2006 calendar project is led by Chicano artist, Ernest M. Saenz, who says that recent activities targeting Chicano Art in several communities inspired him to respond by initiating the development of the calendar and other artistic projects that proclaim and celebrate the value of Chicano Art and culture.

What makes the calendar truly unique and valuable, besides the beauty of the art itself and what the art represents is the diversity of the art and artists included in the calendar. The calendar features paintings, cartoons, and photography reflecting the diverse talents within the Chicano art community. The art chosen also is a reflection of Chicano reality and politic, a visually stunning window into the complex frontera and between border lives of Chicanos here in the U.S.

The calendar, published by Floricanto press can be purchased online for 15.70 via www.0101aztlan.net

Via / Xispas

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