DE ESPERANZA Y DE LOCURA/OF HOPE AND MADNESS
Work by Erika Harrsch, Miguel Luciano, Esperanza Mayobre, Favianna Rodriguez, and Judi Werthein
August 28—October 26, 2013
This group exhibition presents the work of Latino artists who deal with migration and immigration issues understood as flights of both hope and insanity. It includes kites bearing the images of undocumented youth, an installation of migratory monarch butterflies representing Dream Act activists, butterfly kites made of enlarged paper money, fictitious passports, customized tennis shoes for crossing the border, candles of the Santa de la Esperanza, and an immigration “Wheel of Fortune” game. Several works convey hope and an uplifting feeling that events will turn out for the best, while other works point towards the almost irrational leap of fate one needs to take in order to migrate in search of a better life with no results ensured. All the works embody strategies for representing the anticipation and aspiration of the migrant: an almost unreal effort towards creating one’s own reality.
