The World, Witnessed and Imagined Together
2020 was a strange year and I decided to approach this 50|50 show differently. Instead of working on each panel separately I worked on 49 of them together, (50 would take care of itself). I wanted to focus on the collective, the big picture, the bigger ideas that reach beyond me and my own endeavors.
Once this landscape world started to develop on these panels, I wanted to find something to connect them and I was also struggling with the idea of creating a whole image broken apart by the nature of the panels.
The chain link fence was something that I could see existing disassembled. It put me in the perspective of being trapped in a cage and having the resolve that beyond that fence was a beautiful welcoming landscape. I viewed this from my own child's mindset, when things were hard and I felt alone, I clung to the beauty of the landscape; the stars, plants, trees, wind blowing in the grass and the water, always the water. This is what I would try to think of if I were trapped in a cage. This and the words I have heard throughout my life encouraging me to continue.
The title of each panel is based on the 5 element theory used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Each panel is named after an element and a characteristic of that element; the characteristic helps in diagnosing imbalance.
I see each panel as a talisman. It can serve as a reminder that collectively we all participate in this idea in some way, that treating all people in a humane way is possible, attainable and ideal. This means our friends, enemies, neighbors, strangers, family, and other people's children.
This is the world we build together.
Half of my portion of 50|50 earnings were donated to the non-profit Raices to help reunite undocumented children who have been separated from their families.
