Rio De Muertos
November 3, 2023 — Brownsville, Texas — Short Notice TX Vintage Clothing Shop
February 22, 2024 — Brownsville, Texas — George Ramirez Performing Arts Academy (on view)
Honoring the Life Lost from Border Militarization
Collaboration and Art Installation with Cielo Zuñiga and Voces Unidas
Created by sewing deconstructed secondhand clothing together with a zigzag stitch, this piece aims to engage viewers with the harsh realities of existing along the Rio Grande within a modern era of border militarization. A fabric installation made of secondhand clothing spans an approximately 10’ x 11’ wall space of Short Notice, a vintage clothing shop in Brownsville, TX, and within it are embellishments that directly reference human, plant, and animal life that have been lost or impacted by the political boundaries that are borders. Later in February 2024, this piece was relocated to the Brownsville Performing Arts Academy, a non-profit organization and facility that nurtures young, creative minds at the southernmost point of Texas.
This work was created over a month and was an immense undertaking; it is our effort to evolve the general sentiment toward people in migration by reflecting our own lived experience and that of many others, which includes an awareness of the different areas in which borders have shaped life in the US Southwest. Migrant labor, historically and in the current day, is core to the development of America. Similarly, immigration is common in the journey of many families across the US. However, the political misalignments of the southern border have led to our witness of human rights violations and the slow encroachment on and destruction of precious natural environments.
LIVE MURALIST
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