An understanding of self, identity, belonging in new exhibit

There are clear references to moments from the life and culture of artist Maria de Los Angeles in the pieces selected for an upcoming exhibition, featuring her work and that of her husband and fellow artist, Ryan Bonilla. “In Lak’ech: Tu eres mi otro yo” is on display Monday to Oct. 13 at the San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery and demonstrates a Mayan concept of connecting with the human spirit of others, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

In her paintings, drawings and wearable dress sculptures, de Los Angeles says she uses her own observation, memories and imagination from her personal history as an undocumented immigrant to comment on concepts of identity, citizenship and belonging.

“Some of the dresses feature family symbols, fertility, a lot of border imagery, a lot of imagery around my experience growing up undocumented, what it meant, what it means to find your sense of being or belonging through all of those experiences. There are a lot of things that relate to Mexican heritage that are featured in my work,” she says. “There are also other things that fall outside of that specific background because I want to really talk about how I, as an artist and also Mexican, have all of those things that I like about my culture and that I’m part of, but I think that identity is a bit more in flux. We have several ways of being in the world and naming ourselves. For me, that’s really important; that my work borrows not just from Mexican heritage, but from other visual elements from other sections of my life and experiences and learning.”

De Los Angeles, who grew up in Mexico before immigrating to California when she was 11, currently lives in New Jersey and recently joined the faculty of the Yale School of Art, where she earned her master’s in fine arts and now teaches painting and printmaking. An opening reception for “In Lak’ech” is planned from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the gallery and she’ll also be speaking during an artist talk from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday. She took some time to talk about her work and the social justice issues explored within it. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version of this conversation, visit sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lisa-deaderickstaff.html.)

Q:

The description of “In Lak’ech” says that it invokes a Mayan concept popularized by the Chicano playwright and filmmaker Luis Valdez, reflecting “a philosophy of caring and connecting with the human spirit of one another.” Can you tell us about the significance of this concept for this show?

A:

I think the theme of the exhibit is perfect and relates to the self being something we share and replicate for other people, and that relationship. For me, this exhibition is perfect because it is my work, which is about how identity has so many facets. In our society, or with our friends, there’s what we project out for people versus what we kind of keep hidden. It’s this idea of the reflection of self and, within that reflection, we can see overlap in the identity between one person and another. It’s that duality, that shared identity, that we’re looking at in this exhibition. For me, my work specifically relates to this idea because there are a lot of themes about belonging, migration and symbolism in my paintings that are linked to both my upbringing in Mexico and the U.S. Ryan and I are collaborators and he will be showing an installation of hundreds of Polaroids, and he will also have work on paper and some video. His work is a lot about the celebration of life and culture, while at the same time touching on social issues of the moment.

Q:

I understand that your own lived experiences have found their way into your art and your decision to push back a bit on the concept of American citizenship. Can you talk a bit about what you mean by that?

A:

I think that pushing back on this concept was, first, just a survival mechanism because of the legal situation. Not belonging legally also makes you really think about what it means to belong, what it means to be a citizen, what it means to vote and even to get a driver’s license. I wish I hadn’t spent this much time thinking about what it means to belong in the United States, and feel empowered, culturally, being in the U.S. and being Mexican. It’s a really big challenge for many people, especially people my age who came here with no documents. In my work, when I was at Yale University during my MFA time, I started to think about those narratives, about my memories, and about what I thought the “American dream” and American citizenship means to me, or still means now. I didn’t really start to discover that subject matter in my work, or bring them forth in my work, until I was in graduate school at Yale.

Q:

Four of the dresses you’ve created are central to the exhibit and include elements like American flags, tortilla warmers and T-shirts. Tell us about why you chose those elements and what they mean to you in this context.

A:

They’re sort of everyday elements, depending on your cultural background, but they’re also things that signal both Mexican and American identity, to me. The American flag holds a lot of symbolism and is very powerful. One wonders, who gets to wear the flag and the ways in which we get to own it. For me, to put the American flag in the dresses is a signal to what it means to be American and belong, but it’s also an ownership of the American flag. The American flag has also been used a lot in protest and activism, so what does it mean to wear and have the American flag in your work? It carries a lot of social weight, but it depends on who’s looking at it. Some might see it and be proud of the flag being on the dress as a source of pride. Other people might feel slightly upset, maybe, that I cut it up and put it in a dress.

For the tortilla warmers, that is just a part of Mexican culture and it’s a really playful thing, as well. You see it when you go to your aunt’s house and there are different kinds of embroidery. It’s an interesting thing and it comes from homes, from nurturing, from everyday life.

With the T-shirts, I use a lot of recycled fabrics, so some of my dresses have a base that is made of canvas and on top of that I use embroidery, stenciling, painting, ribbon, recycled patches, T-shirts. I just like to use things that are in your everyday life. There’s one dress in the show called the “Family Dress” that I made with material that I was working on during my grad school years. It’s the oldest dress and doesn’t have a lot of embroidery. It’s a single sheet of material and then has other components from the same material attached to it, so it’s more like a painting. The new garments are more like drawings, performance, protest; they’re a mixing of a lot more elements than that first dress, but I still love that dress. It’s a pretty nice line-up [in this exhibition] from the beginning, to what I’m making more of now, with the “Opportunity Dress,” which is a very layered texture and has a different form and discipline.