Harold Washington Library Center hosts a Hispanic Heritage Month art exhibit featuring the work of local artist Yvette Mayorga.
Pieces from Mayorga’s collection will be on display from October 1 through December 31.
Artist Statement
My work is situated within the idea of the “American dream,” how it has been perpetuated through culture—and sold through the popular media. Drawing from post-colonial theory, I critique power and social structures while questioning identity, culture and gender in my work, which includes multimedia installations and paintings.
My ongoing project Borderland Series (2014-15) employs confection, industrial materials and the American board game Candy Land as a conceptual framework to juxtapose the borderlands of the U.S. and Mexico. The spaces in the “Candy Lands” of my work relate to notions of Utopia, exemplifying the immigrant’s vision of the American Dream. Candy Land signifies an America filled with the possibility of happiness while Mexico becomes the land of lost hope. Informed by the politics of the border, the events that happen on it and the transnational narratives that arise after crossing it, I tackle issues of race, identity, gender and Latin stereotypes using the visual tropes of celebration. The monuments/towers, built from accumulated candy, frosting, and found objects, exemplify the excess associated with the American Dream. They stand as living shrines to real-life individuals, such as Selena Quintanilla, my mother and sister.
The viewer’s body is confronted in the presence of the monuments due to their relative stature that resembles bodily height. The context of my Chicana identity constantly informs the making of the work. My Mexican culture is known for its parties, quinceneras, weddings, celebrations, vibrant colors and food. All of these festivities exuberate excessiveness and consumption. By making these monuments/towers with excessive accumulation of frosting, color and found objects, I am paying homage to the individual narrative and my cultural heritage that is deep rooted in my veins.
