For todays post, I'd like to feature my artwork Xicana Birth and share the idea behind the art. Xicana Birth is 23.5" in diameter, acrylic and ink on wood. I completed it this year, 2014. Please see image below and explanation. Please click the link to view this and other related work on my site. Enjoy! xicana [shee-CAH-nah]
To choose to identify as Xicano or Xicana is at once a declaration of: consciousness of actual history, solidarity with the struggles of the Chicano civil rights movement (and similar struggles on the continent), a rejection of imposed labels, acknowledgement of nahua roots, an affirmation of cultural identity, and resistance through language. This piece was inspired by my own Xicana experience. Xicana Birth is not about a physical birth or physical existence, but about a recurring spiritual and intellectual birth (or transformation) which develops through constant introspection while becoming aware of illusions, discovering truth, uniting with the community, and acknowledging a deep connection to nature and the universe. Xicana Birth includes references to Catholic Mexican culture (figure on the left), the United States of America (figure on the right), and the displacement of Native Americans, First Nations, Mesoamericans, and other indigenous Nican Tlacan people from their homes on this continent. The piece also makes reference to the search for truth in ancestral wisdom, rejection of the illusions that restrict freedom, civil rights and resistance, change and transformation of the spirit, unrestricted immigration, the constant presence of duality (ometeotl, hunab ku, yin yang), the inevitability of transformation, and the possibility of peace through wisdom and unity. There are also a reference to Frida Kahlo's Las Dos Fridas as well as the reuse of iconography from my previous painting Reclaiming Autonomy.
1 Comment
3/19/2015 10:20:04 pm
Now and after that I’ll stumble across a post like this and I’ll recall that there truly are still fascinating pages around the web. ^_^. Thanks.
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Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo
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