EXHIBITION:
Ni de Aquí Ni de Allá / Neither Here Nor There
Exposure to art forms that beautifully represented Latines led me to love my culture, and the years of mistreating my Mexicanness manifested as internalized guilt for the years I spent assimilating to white popular culture. For my master’s project I wanted to combine and emulate the art forms that had this powerful impact on my own identity as a form of self-exploration and, hand in hand, as an approach to an ethnographic exploration of my community on the border. Using multiple methods of public education, I wanted to explore and expose the experiences that led to this lifelong internal struggle surrounding the part of me that identifies as being from neither here nor there. In doing so I hoped to demonstrate how creating visual art content can contribute to the re-centering of marginalized cultures, like that of Latine communities, and positively impact collective and individual social identities. ​​
SUMMARY
As a whole, the exhibit looks at latino identities in the border and aims to empower these communities through positive representation using portraiture, documentary film elements and the photovoice research method.
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OVERVIEW
The exhibit includes storytelling through photography, a short series of filmed interviews like those in a documentary, and some interactive and participatory elements that pair with the photos and film.
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EXAMINATION
My masters project paper examines the content and my process of developing this photography and documentary exhibit funded by UTEP through the Dodson Research Grant offered to graduate students.