WK 8: Consuelo Jimenez Underwood

One of the artists whose work I was fascinated by and learned about through my peers' presentation is Consuelo Jimenez Underwood. Jimenez Underwood is a Chicana artist born in Sacramento and currently based in Cupertino, CA. In the 80s, Jimenez Underwood obtained her BA in Art from SDSU, followed by her MA in Art at SDSU, and then her MFA at SJSU. Her work is largely textile-based and challenged the notions of craft vs. art, crafting her own authentic voice. One of the main issues her work addresses is border relations and migration. This specific piece I was called to is a rebozo. The rebozo is usually an item used to provide warmth and wrap someone up, but in this case, it's constructed from materials and subject matter that produce jarring feelings and present the stark reality of migration. Printed all over the rebozo is the emblematic caution sign that warns of migrants crossing, it is stitched together by safety pins, and hung from barbed wire. In this reimagining of the rebozo, Jimenez Underwood learned to actually weave rebozos, this was important to her as an Indigenous woman of the Americas. The color palette of the rebozos from this series also lend themselves to the landscape of border crossings, they resemble the colors of the desert and the night sky. These rebozos are part of Jimenez Underwood's larger caution series, as she often produces work that fits into series such as "Borderlines", "Flags", "America". She takes on these terms that at a surface level can be apolitical and crafts work from an Indigenous perspective and affirmation of communities that are negatively impacted by these "borderlines", "flags", and "America".