Open gallery
![Constreñidos [4], Photo stills from video , 20 x 30 in, 2019.](/live/image/scale/3x/gid/27/width/500/height/282/crop/1/39095_Maria_2019_5.rev.1605900249.webp)
Constreñidos [4], Photo stills from video , 20 x 30 in, 2019.
In my exhibition, Skin, I examine biases based solely on skin color through video art, photographs, and painting. In my videos, Constreñidos and Red, I paint my body, presented anonymously without a face, in sympathy with those who have experienced racism, for example, the Asylum Seekers at the south Texas border. In the video, Constreñidos, using white paint on my Brown body, that is painted on by a white individual, symbolizes the racism that is imposed on those in the Latinx community. Similarly, the video, Red, functions symbolically for skin, for beauty, and for provocative red clothing used against womyn by men.
I create the digital images in the exhibition, Stripes [Constreñidos] and Stripes [Red], from single video frames, which then lead to the paintings. For Stripes[Constreñidos], I used a photo still from my video, Constreñidos, to focus on skin color by turning it into a minimalist digital image which I transform into a minimalist stripe painting, Abstraction of Constreñidos. The next digital image, Stripes [Red], by contrast focuses on the provocative use of red on womyn as a symbol of sexuality.
Given the social conditions of our time, I highlight the issues occuring in the south Texas border along with the continuation of the BLM movement.