Ojeda, Alejandro: Week 6

After going through Xandra Ibarra’s website, I became intrigued by the work that Ibarra does and the ways in which she decides to deliver messages. To me, it seems that art is one of the most perfect expressions for Ibarra, especially since a lot of her work is unique and does not look like any other piece of art I have seen before.

One of the most interesting pieces I came across was her Inventory of Exhaustion Series (image left), whose solo project of the same name exhibited at the Black and White Projects in 2016. I learned that these photographs depicted the vacuum-sealed costumes that Ibarra wore, often when performing as La Chica Boom. I find this to be really fascinating, because there is so much that can be interpreted from this exhibition. On one hand, it is almost as if Ibarra is capturing a moment from the time these outfits were worn. This tells a story in one way, because viewers get the chance to almost imagine what it would have been like to both perform in that costume and watch some perform in that costume. Ibarra mentions that each of the pieces included in the exhibition almost shadow the kinds of “preservations and categorizations” you would see at a typical natural history museum. This is really interesting, since one wouldn’t normally expect to see clothes at a museum like that. However, it makes sense. These costumes tell a story, and Ibarra did a wonderful job telling that story in this exhibition.

If I could ask Ibarra a question, I would ask: How does it feel to vacuum-seal these costumes and, in a way, also seal the memories associated with them? Even though these costumes are referred to as “shed skin,” do you ever wish you could wear them again?