week 9 - margarita cabrera

From this week’s presentations, I’m most interested in learning more about Mexican-American artist Margarita Cabrera. I’m always drawn to artists who embrace craft and other non-conventional materials in their work. I’m also interested in politically engaged and collaborative artworks, all of which Cabrera is exploring. I’m particularly excited about her soft sculptures of cacti, aloe vera, agave, and other plants from the American southwest. I love soft sculptures because they subvert the viewer’s expectations and encourage closer/deeper inspection. It’s a cactus, but it’s made out of fabric—but it’s not just any fabric. It’s fabric from uniforms worn by U.S. Border Patrol officers. Colorful drawings of homes, people, hearts, stars, crosses, and more are sewn onto the surface of the repurposed uniforms. Cabrera, an immigrant herself, hosts embroidery workshops where she makes these soft sculptures in collaboration with local immigrant communities. They share their stories with one another which informs the kind of imagery that gets embroidered onto the plants. I think Cabrera’s use of art as a means to form community and initiate necessary conversations surrounding border relations, labor practices, and immigration is inspirational and groundbreaking. She is working directly with the community she aims to serve, empowering one another through artistic collaboration in addition to sharing and documenting their experiences, struggles, and achievements.