Week 5-- Laura Aguilar

Much of my schooling thus far in both my major and minor has functioned as this reinforcement of empowerment through intraspection. For the past four years I have preached this notion of exploring and embracing multiple identities as a means to empower the self. Despite such ideas, I rarely though of the construct of identity, or multiple identities, could be oppressive. As Edwin explained in class this past Monday, identity can function as alienating and oppressive in the way that titles tend to pigeonhole us. Titles, even if self proclaimed, that denote race and gender are constricting and limiting. If we do not conform to the image that is typically associated with any one title or identity, then we are deemed as “wrong” or “unfitting” by society.

Laura Aguilar’s work deals with this relationship of self to identity in a larger social context. I think her work is beautiful. After watching the videos, I feel her relationship to her art functions as a means to access notions of empowerment in aspects of her identity. I also felt a deep connection to her work. Not only was it aesthetically inviting, in the comparison of the body in relation to nature, but also I felt a relationship to her work as a woman. I both appreciated and empathized with how she navigated her personal sense of identity within these confines of constricting structures of identity. I hope we watch more of her videos in class and continue to see her work.