Week 5 Laura Aguilar

Laura Aguilar is the artist that I would like to talk about from this week’s presentations. I found her work really emotionally charged and evocative because she talks about themes that in our society are kind of taboo. I think that she represents all her struggles about sexuality, her body, depression, and identity in her art in a very direct but also delicate way. The elements that she uses in some of her compositions, her body and the natural landscape, are combined to produce a sensitive and emotive work of art.

The image that our classmate Edwin Arzeta showed in class, Three Eagles Flying, is extremely powerful. It is a self-portrait of Aguilar including the Mexican and U.S. flags. Aguilar is standing in the middle, with the Mexican flag over her face and wearing the American flag as a skirt. She has a rope tied around her neck, wrists, and legs. I think that this rope symbolizes the fact that, as a Chicana, she is literally tied to her American and Mexican identities, but at the same time they suffocate her and prevent her from expressing her own self. Her breasts are exposed, representing her struggle about being comfortable with her own body. Is very clear that in this image she is represented her identity. I like the fact that it is a black-and-white photograph, because this creates contrast and also a sense of simplicity and directness.