Art and Design Commons^™

Patchwork: 76km Between Juárez And El Paso, Naheyla Medina

Masters Theses

Located at the western edge of Texas where the Río Bravo ~ Rio Grande, becomes the border between México and the United States. Resides a spectacle of misconceptions that, along with an expansive corten steel border wall embedded into the earth, live to suppress the histories, culture, and environment entangled together like patchwork along this border space. The built environment influences our daily experiences, and our daily experiences can often influence our built environment. This project seeks to leverage, murals as a medium, creative writing, and architectural representations, to rework the mapping between Mexico and the US. Honing in on …

Industrial Tenderness, Elbert Girón

Masters Theses

Industrial Tenderness surveys the relationship between visual language, cultural expression, and diasporic practices through the design of functional sculptures. These designed objects seek to communicate cultural legibility, or intuitive cultural belonging, to Mexican-American peoples by challenging legacy notions of design language. Through a proposed design language framework and designed objects, Industrial Tenderness seeks to affirm a pluriversal practice of industrial design.

Legacy industrial design confines design language to a heavily prescriptive canon, resulting in a stark monocultural language that is unrepresentative of perspectives outside of a legacy dominant white eurocentricity founded in thinking from the Bauhaus and Ulm schools. Through …

Espacio, Edgar Perez Peña, Edgar Perez Peña

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Edgar Perez Peña (He, Him, His) is a Queer, Chicanx contemporary figurative painter, who lives and works in the Los Angeles County. A native of Los Angeles, California, his paintings, and assemblages are a strong combination of process, materials, and content that displays his fascination on how physical/psychological space (from where he resides), reflects on the Queer Brown body and its comfort/discomfort in relation to public and private space.

Peña looks at his artistic practice as an opportunity to explore the human condition from the Queer and Brown perspective as well the beginning of healing through the meditative process of …

From Fashion, To Violence, To A Forgotten Era: The Zoot Suit And Mexican-American Youth Culture In 1940’S America, Adelaide Iris Ord Treadwell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

From Fashion, To Violence, To A Forgotten Era: The Zoot Suit And Mexican-American Youth Culture In 1940’S America, Adelaide Iris Ord Treadwell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Questions Of Canon In Gilbert Hernandez's "Palomar" Comics, Martin Dolan

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

While questions of misrepresentation are starting to be addressed in academia — acknowledging racial, cultural, gender, and artistic diversity — there is still much work to be done to close the gap between the literary canon and what contemporary literature actually looks like. These efforts have been a step in the right direction, but representation of unconventional literatures is often spotty, boiling down entire literary scenes into one book. This is especially true for those that offer formal or structural challenges – including multilingual and graphic narratives that don’t easily fit into a canonical “box.”

Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar comics, serialized …

La Cultura Que No Cambia, Karina Arreola-Gutierrez

MFA in Visual Art

In the text of La Cultura Que No Cambia, I mention how my work has been influenced by becoming more aware of generations of altar making that occur in my family. By collecting stories and photographs of altars, I can observe and create work based on how the legacies can change through generations or stay the same. The memory of my ancestors and family traditions is strengthened. Growing up seeing discrimination towards others has influenced me to highlight my Mexican heritage of traditions, culture, and language through several different methods. Using these elements, I can create work informing audiences about …

Textiled Narratives: Branding, Consumption, And Mexican American Identity At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, Andrew Michael Gordus

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

The NaCo apparel company out of Tijuana, Mexico, created a unique line of clothing and accessories in the late 1990s and early 2000s. With its success in Mexico, the brand chose to extend its reach into the lucrative US market. The company's focus on bicultural and binational images seemed a natural fit for a growing Latinx presence in the US. An analysis of the company's successes and failures in the new market highlights the continued importance of borders as separators of visual economies rooted in national histories and imaginations. Additionally, their experience reveals the complexities within Latinx communities that can …

Bibliography For "Chicano Art: A Display In Celebration Of Hispanic Heritage", Margaret Puentes

Library Displays and Bibliographies

A bibliography created to accompany a display about Chicano Art for National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15-October 15, 2021, at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University.

Inevitable Associations: Art, Institution, And Cultural Intersection In Los Angeles, 1973–1988, Liz Hirsch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inevitable Associations: Art, Institution, and Cultural Intersection in Los Angeles, 1973-1988 considers alternative institutions and cultural intersections in bicentennial-era Los Angeles. I look at the spatial, social, and artistic convergence of Los Angeles artists rarely seen as allied, through close examination of alternative cultural infrastructure that came out of a federal jobs program called the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and cohered around a building located at 240 South Broadway in downtown. I use the model of association—alliance through shared purpose—to demonstrate moments of convergence and interconnection. Through an analysis of the formation of Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), …

Aztlán Del Sol, Marcus Zúñiga

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest

An artistic writing developed from the themes and concepts of an of art installation made by a visual artist of Mexican-American descent from New Mexico. The work references the relationship of Aztec mythology to the American Southwest, art theoretical discourse in object oriented ontology and aesthetics, and key ideas in astronomy. Additionally interwoven is an expanded sense for interpreting ancestry and history under the constructs of multicultural conceptions of time, specifically cultures with notable spiritual rituals of Sun worship and observation.

Cosmic Desert Art, Mike Graham De La Rosa

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest

The Cosmic Desert are the designs inspired by chile hallucinations, desert creatures, and the long weird neon nights in the Borderworld. Made with love on the banks of the Rio Grande.

My family is originally from Northern Mexico but I grew up in Northern New Mexico down river of both where Al Hurricane and Nuclear Annihilation were originally created. Amongst chollas, rattle snakes, and river willow, the imagining of New Mexico permeates the landscapes. The Cosmic Desert is inhabited lowriders, taco trucks, neon adobe bars, cholas, native peoples, immigrants, punk rockers and cowboys. Just beyond the darkness, our imagination takes …

Chicanx Murals: Decolonizing Place And (Re)Writing The Terms Of Composition, Nora K. Rivera

English Faculty Articles and Research

Drawing from an interpretive decolonial framework that understands multimodal writing as the act of creating co-composed knowledge, this article analyzes Chicanx murals as multimodal compositions that exemplify the continuation of the Aztec tlacuilolitztli practice of writing with images. This work also invites rhetoric and composition scholars to reexamine Western understandings of history, particularly the history of writing.

The Migrant Times, Jessenya Guerra

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone newspaper shows how the Mexican diaspora has become integrated into American culture.

Reworking The White-Masculine Ideal, Steven H. Gonzalez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This text functions as an exploration of self through artistic practice, a designated space for reflection on contemporary Queer experience. In looking specifically at the permeation of the idealized-white-masculine figure as found within Western visual culture, social media and gay pornography become isolated as sites where these figures are commonly found. This line of inquiry defines how the ideal is reified through these differing digital platforms and the social implications the homogenized male form has on raced individuals. In addition to determining the image of the perfect masculine physique through research, this text expands on how its' imaged representation becomes …

Womxn Of Color In Print Subculture: 1970-2018, Lenora Yee

Summer Research

My research is rooted in the archival analysis of primary alternative print mediums produced by womxn of color collectives. Through the exploration of numerous databases and archives, I analyzed and explored the different ways in which the written word was, and continues to be, utilized by womxn of color as a site for activism. Focusing on the work of five different womxn of color collectives spanning from 1970-2018, I evaluated works by the collectives Asian Lesbians of the East Coast (ALOEC), Las Buenas Amigas (LBA), The Groit Press (African Ancestral Lesbians), the book #NotYourPrincess Voices of Native American Women and …

Lotion In Your Lungs, Raul H. De Lara

Theses and Dissertations

This is a document explaining in detail my artistic practice from childhood to the day I graduated VCU. It will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already felt such ways, or similar ways – words and ghosts are mostly invisible.

Precolumbian Textile Conference Vii / Jornadas De Textiles Precolombinos Vii, Lena Bjerregaard, Ann H. Peters

Zea E-Books Collection

Contents:

Introduction — Lena Bjerregaard and Ann Peters

Mexico

1. Mesoamerican Archaeological Textiles: An Overview of Materials, Techniques, and Contexts — Laura Filloy Nadal

2. Urdimbres enlazadas de Mesoamérica. Textil de la Cueva del Gallo, Morelos, México — Patricia Ochoa Castillo & Rosa Lorena Román Torres •

3. Los textiles procedentes del actual estado de Guerrero, México: una revisión a su estudio desde la perspectiva arqueológica y etnohistórica — Elizabeth Jiménez García

4. Classic Textiles from Cueva del Lazo (Chiapas, Mexico). Archaeological context and conservation issues — Davide Domenici & Gloria Martha Sánchez Valenzuela

5. Textiles y otros materiales arqueológicos …

Classic Textiles From Cueva Del Lazo (Chiapas, Mexico): Archaeological Context And Conservation Issues, Davide Domenici, Gloria Martha Sánchez Valenzuela

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

The excavation of Cueva del Lazo, a cave on the cliffs of the Río La Venta River canyon in the Zoque region of Western Chiapas (Mexico), led to the discovery of a complex Late Classic post-sacrificial context where eleven children were buried wrapped in textile bundles. The environmental conditions of the dry cave allowed an extraordinary preservation of perishable materials including textiles, cordages, botanical remains, etc. In the first part of the paper we provide a brief introduction to the archaeology of the Selva El Ocote, as well as a description and interpretation of the Cueva del Lazo archaeological context. …

Trajes De Poder. Los Conjuntos Chimú Con Borlas, Victòria Solanilla

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

A raíz de la puesta en marcha del Museo de Culturas del Mundo (MCM) de Barcelona, inaugurado en febrero de 2015, y conocedores de que entre las piezas procedentes de América precolombina había una camisa con borlas Chimú perteneciente a la Colección Folch, creímos que sería interesante estudiarla. Por otro lado, en una reunión que se realizó en Basilea en marzo de 2014, con motivo de la puesta al día del grupo que formamos los integrantes del proyecto Corpus Antiquitatum Americanensium perteneciente a la Unión Académica Internacional, en la que participaron conservadores de las secciones de América de los principales …

Urdimbres Enlazadas De Mesoamérica. Textil De La Cueva Del Gallo, Morelos, México, Patricia Ochoa Castillo, Rosa Lorena Román Torres

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

Los ejemplos de textiles arqueológicos que se encuentran en la República mexicana son muy escasos debido entre otras cosas al suelo húmedo. Los hallazgos de textiles arqueológicos son considerados casi milagros de la arqueología y de la conservación, tal es el caso de la colección de textiles de la Cueva del Gallo, en Ticumán Morelos, México. El objeto de este trabajo es la contextualización y análisis textil de un lienzo completo encontrado en esta cueva en 1991 elaborado con urdimbres enlazadas, teñido con azul índigo o añil y grana cochinilla, que dio inicio al Proyecto Arqueológico de Ticumán (PAT) en …

Mesoamerican Archaeological Textiles: An Overview Of Materials, Techniques, And Contexts, Laura Filloy Nadal

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

In Mesoamerica, unlike the Andean area, there are few instances when climatic conditions allow the preservation of the organic raw materials constituting ancient fabrics. Examples of such textiles conserved in Mexican museums are quite limited, thus even the tiniest fragments recovered in archaeological contexts greatly augment our understanding of ancient weaving technologies and their use in Mesoamerican societies. Most of the surviving fabrics come from dry caves in northern Mexico, but in recent days the exploration of relatively inaccessible rock shelters in southern Mexico has led to the recovery of additional textiles from early times that are associated with funerary …

Archaeological Textiles Of Sechín Bajo – A Formative Site Of The North Coast Of Peru: Preliminarily Results, Katalin Nagy

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

In spring 2014, I took part in an archaeological project carried out by a German-Peruvian team of archeologists in the Sechín Valley, next to the Valley of Casma, on the North Coast of Peru. The project started more than ten years ago and has been taking place parallel to some other important archaeological projects on the North Coast. Its aim was to unearth the temple mounds and to reconstruct the parts of the various phases. The earliest layers date back to the Pre-Ceramic Period. During the wall construction of the temple, many textile fabrics such as nets and ropes were …

Andean Textile Traditions: Material Knowledge And Culture, Part 1, Elena Phipps

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

The development of rich and complex Andean textile traditions spanned millennia, in concert with the development of cultures that utilized textiles as a primary form of expression and communication. Understanding the importance of textiles in the Andean world, we can examine elements of their genesis and look at the trajectory from the earliest developments of fiber- made items to the extraordinarily complex and specific processes of textile making, such as warp-wrapping and discontinuous warp and weft weaving. These processes are examined in the context of the relationship between textiles and the sacred, highlighting the significance and agency of cloth in …

Textiles Y Otros Materiales Arqueológicos Del Valle De Tehuacán, México, En Los Museos Reales De Arte E Historia (Mrah), Bruselas, Julia Montoya

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

En este trabajo se presenta una colección de materiales arqueológicos que provienen de dos cuevas no localizadas del Valle de Tehuacán, estado de Puebla, México. Los materiales datan del período posclásico (1250-1521) y pertenecen a las culturas mixteca y azteca. La colección se conserva en los Museos Reales de Arte e Historia, MRAH, de Bruselas, Bélgica. Incluye entre otros, objetos de madera con mosaico, cerámica, restos humanos, esteras, plantas, textiles de algodón, sandalias y ofrendas de papel amate, entre las cuales, tres fueron teñidas con la técnica de reserva conocida como plangi. Hasta la fecha la colección no ha sido …

Introduction Into The History Of The Textile Collection At The Ethnological Museum Berlin, Beatrix Hoffmann

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

When the Ethnological Museum at Berlin was founded, it counted already with several hundred pieces from South America. Only a minor part them belonged to pre-Columbian cultures from the Andes. While most of these pieces were ceramics almost no ancient fabrics could be found in the collection. This reflected the collector’s interests focusing on objects made of ceramic, stone or metal and on human remains. Consequently, the first pieces of fabric reached the museum at Berlin as parts of mummy cloths. This did not change until 1879, when the collection of Reiss and Stübel was acquired for the museum. It …

The Curious Case Of Sir Henry Wellcome’S Wooden Statuette Clad In Tie-Dyed Wari Cloth, Penelope Dransart

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

A wooden statuette clad in small-scale garments made from a Wari style tie-dyed textile joined the collections of the City of Liverpool Public Museum (now National Museums Liverpool) in 1951 along with other items distributed by the trustees of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. This article discusses Wari style tie-dyed tunics as part of an ensemble of garments. It explores the character of the Wari period textile (c. AD 600-1000) used for dressing the statuette, its similarity to textiles in the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del …

Analysis Of Paracas Fibre Material From The Gothenburg Collection, Anna Javér

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

Gothenburg City has in its collection, 2000-year-old textiles from the Paracas peninsula in Peru. After the exhibition ”A Stolen World” at the National Museums of World Culture in 2008, Peru asked for a repatriation of the collection. Following negotiations between the City of Gothenburg and the Ministry of Culture in Peru it was decided that the ownership of the textiles would be returned to Peru. In June 2014, the first four textiles were returned to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History (MNAAHP) in Lima as a start of the repatriation. This was also the beginning of a collaboration …

Pre-Columbian Textile Structures At Castillo De Huarmey, Peru, Aleksandra Laszczka, Jeffrey C. Splitstoser, Miłosz Giersz

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

Systematic excavations at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site, located on the North Coast of Peru, enabled researchers to collect an immense number of fabrics. During the first season of textile investigations, carried out in July of 2014 by American and Polish researchers, 724 objects were examined, including textile fragments, yarns, and cordage. A general description of the basic structures indicates a variety of weaving techniques. Although the collection consists mainly of plain weave of all kinds, new structures such as three-dimensional cross-knit looping and feather-mosaic work were recognized, none of which were encountered among textiles collected from the surface …

Headdress Forms In The Paracas Necrópolis Mortuary Tradition, Ann H. Peters

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

The importance of headdress is indicated by its careful arrangement on the head of the recently deceased, display on the apex of a mortuary bundle, and prominent depiction in contemporary artifacts. In woven, embroidered or painted imagery, headdress elements include featherwork, the body of a bird or mammal, draped cloth or intertwined bands, often depicted as serpents. Due to their position above the human body, the headdresses are the most consistently preserved textile artifacts in tombs of the Paracas Necropolis mortuary tradition. Some elements appear only with men, others are found with both men and women and certain headcloths are …