Presentation: Consuelo J. Underwood

The artist that I selected for my presentation and paper is Consuelo Jimenez Underwood. Underwood is a contemporary Chicana artist from San Jose, California who chronicles the colonial legacies of the Americas: brutal domination of the land and the indigenous cultures, marginalization of the tarnished environment and poverty, cultural mestizaje, and the maximum exploitation of human capital. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Art at San Diego State University, and later obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Art at San Jose State University. The daughter of migrant workers―a Chicana mother and a father of Huichol descent―Underwood combines traditional textile materials with those not commonly used (barbed wire, plastic-coated wire, safety pins, etc.) to challenge the contemporary distinction between art and craft.

I gravitated towards Consuelo J. Underwood because her installations simply captivated my attention upon first glance. A fundamental aspect of Underwood’s persona and the basis of her creative process is her personal border experiences that include: the interconnectedness of societies and “seeing” the world through her tri-cultural lens. As stated by the artist herself, her engaging materials are interwoven to create large-scale fiber art that is “inspired in equal measures by land, politics, and Spirit.” Another aspect that characterizes Underwood and one that convinced me of her work was the legitimization of fiber art as a decolonial art form that not only challenges the marginalization that has permeated the Americas for hundred of years, but also, one that validates ancestral memory and personal quest.