For
the second set of presentations, the artist that stood out the most to me was
Xandra Ibarra. Prior to my introduction to her this week in class, I had never
heard of her, or seen performance art like hers. Upon doing more research, I
discovered that Ibarra is a feminist and an activist from my home town, near
the US/Mexico border. Her performance art is risqué and provocative, and pushes
boundaries surrounding her body and culture.
In her work, she calls attention
to issues involving race, gender, and LGBT issues. I
don’t know if I understand her work. However, I can appreciate her individuality
and originality, and the fact that she is not scared to speak her mind. I tried
looking up her art, but the ones that we saw in class did not come up. I did, however,
find a piece called El Processo
(2016), and again, I don’t know if I understand her message. I know what she is
trying to say, that in a way, she is being judged by what she looks like on the
outside, but I don’t think that message was evoked for me. What I think she is
doing, however, is being extreme for the sake of her message, which I can
appreciate. If it wasn’t for her strong approach, she would get zero attention.
In a way, her extreme art surrounding what she does with her body, brings
attention to her cause. This way, both her and the message get attention.
Nataly, I enjoy your discussion on Xandra Ibarra. I similarly was intrigued by her artwork and how provocative it is. I also agree with you in that I do not think I fully understand the meaning behind her work, but it definitely catches my eye because of its uniqueness. Her work seems to demand attention in many ways, and consequently, the motivation behind her work also receives attention. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteHi Nataly, very wonderful insight on Xandra Ibarra. I, too, had never heard of her before and I had no idea what her artwork was about before this class. I also think her artwork is somewhat controversial because of her use of very provocative images.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean with her art being extreme, but I feel like that is one of her main points. Being extreme, and putting herself out there so people can pay attention to her, and thus focus on how free and open she is about what she's performing about. Although she did mention that many critics conceived her art to be just a form for her to get attention, I feel like as an artist, any type of attention is great, because it puts your work out there and popularizes all of your work, not just one specific piece, and allows new viewers to enjoy the art.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this piece. I feel as though this artist challenges social norms in society!
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