Deportable Aliens
This installation is composed by thirty-four elements. The piece references the 1930’s “Repatriation Program” by Hoover-Roosevelt administration in which, about one million Mexicans were forced to leave the country (60% of them were US citizens). In this installation, partial portraits of present day immigrants were sculptured with the idea of a recurrent anti-immigrant ideology in the US. The reference while modeling the gestures in each piece mimics the idea or pseudo-science of Physiognomy, often analyzed and used by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s drawings and sculptures, in which absurdly humans are supposed to categorize and/or judge other humans according to their skin color and facial features.
2014-2015 Porcelain, wood, metal, epoxy glue, paper pulp, and arcilla de Zacatecas Installation view National Museum of Mexican Art