Making A Statement

Boee Chocami/Black Path, 2014, embroidery on fabric permeated with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 36” x 33” Created with the participation of Rarámuri (Tarahumara) women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Maria Elena Guadalajar, Rosalinda Guadalajara, Maria Isidora Pérez, and Herminia Sandoval.
Cuando la mayoría éramos Sandinistas/When Most of Us Were Sandinistas, 2014, embroidery on fabric permeated with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Managua, Nicaragua, 41” x 59” Created with the participation of Atlántida Espinoza, Conny Gutiérrez, Xiomara Gutiérrez, and Susana Pérez in Masaya, Nicaragua
Nkijak b’ey Pa jun utz laj K’aslemal/Opening Paths to Social Justice, 2015, embroidery on fabric permeated with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Guatemala City, 78¾” x 78¾” Created with the participation of Mayan women members of the Asociación de Desarrollo de la Mujer K’ak’a Na’ (ADEMKAN) in Santa Catarina Palopó, Sololá, Guatemala: Bonifacia Cocom, Lucy López, Yuri López, Silvia Menchú, Claudia Nimacachi, Lucrecia Puac, Estela Tax, and Josefina Tuy
American Juju for the Tapestry of Truth, 2015, mixed media on a textile imprinted on the spot in Staten Island where Eric Garner died while being placed under arrest, 66” x 98” Produced with the support of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, New York. Created with the participation of members of the Harlem Needle Arts cultural arts institute: Michelle Bishop, Sahara Briscoe, Laura R. Gadson, and Jerry Gant
Dylegued/Burial, 2013, mola on fabric permeated with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Panama City, Panama, 39¾” x 90½” Created with the participation of the Rosano family, of Kuna descent in Panama City, and in memory of Jadeth Rosano Lopez, a 17-year-old teenager who was assassinated.
Gerlaine GG Om Pào Com Molho: Identidade desconhecida/ Unknown Identities, 2014, embroidery on fabric permeated with blood from the body of a woman assassinated in Recife, Brazil, 89” x 96” Created with the participation of women from the Social Center Dom João Costa: Marluce Pedro de Araujo, Maria Gracas Guimares de Lima, Ezilda Rodrigues da Silva, Edinai Maria da Silva, Josefa Helena da Silva, Josilene Maria da Silva, Zumeira Deca da Silva, Rositania da Silva Santos, and Jocileide Benedita de Souza

In Colby College Museum of Art’s Teresa Margolles: We have a Common Thread exhibition, tragedies are turned into powerful artwork

Last winter, Mexican artist Teresa Margolles traveled to the Staten Island street where Eric Garner died while being placed under arrest and dragged a large cloth over the sidewalk. Tainted by the pavement’s debris, the fabric became the canvas on which embroiderers and artists from Harlem Needle Arts, with input from Margolles, created a work that comments on the tragedy, and voices their concerns about violence faced by African Americans in this country.

American Juju for the Tapestry of Truth is among the works included in Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread, an exhibition on view from September 13 to December 11 at the Colby College Museum of Art. Organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York, and curated by Patrice Giasson, the Alex Gordon Associate Curator of the Art of the Americas, the show also includes collaborations between Margolles and native embroiderers from Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico, who share her distress about violence, particularly against women. She provided each group with a fabric that had been marked through contact with the body of a victim and invited the embroiderers to create designs on the cloth as a way to trigger a conversation about the social problems plaguing their respective communities. Some of these conversations were recorded and accompany the exhibition.

“We are so grateful to Teresa Margolles and the Neuberger Museum of Art for putting this important exhibition together, and we are honored to be sharing it with the people of Maine,” says Colby curator Diana Tuite. “We look forward to the opportunities for learning, discussion, and healing that this exhibition may furnish.” On the following pages, MH+D presents a preview of the show.

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