July 12–October 11, 2015
Neuberger Museum of Art
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, New York 10577
T +914 251 6100
www.neuberger.org
On a trip to New York City last winter, artist Teresa Margolles, Neuberger curator Patrice Giasson, and several others headed to Staten Island to visit the street where Eric Garner died, victim of a NYPD chokehold. As is her practice when preparing canvas for a new work, the artist dragged a large cloth over the spot where the violence occurred. Stained by the sidewalk’s micro-substances, it became the canvas on which embroiderers and artists from Harlem Needle Arts, with input from Margolles, created a design that commented on the tragedy and voiced their concerns about daily violence faced by the African-American community today.
american Juju for the Tapestry of Truth (2015) and five other powerful works will be included in Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread, an exhibition of the artist’s new multi-media work on view through October 11, 2015 at the Neuberger Museum of Art. Born in Culiacán, Mexico, Margolles has spent the last two decades exploring socio-political issues related to violent death in her native land. The unidentified bodies in Mexico’s central morgue, crimes resulting from drug wars, the missing women from Ciudad Juárez, and suicide are themes that have inspired her multimedia work in photography, video, painting, and sculpture.
american Juju marks a new trajectory in the artist’s career. For many of the works included in this project, Margolles collaborated with native embroiderers from Panamá, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico who share her concerns about violence, particularly against women. After explaining her vision for the project, Margolles provided them with a fabric that had been stained through contact with the bodies of women who had suffered violent deaths. She urged the embroiderers to create patterns on the discolored fabrics as a way of triggering conversations on the violence and social problems plaguing their respective communities. These conversations were video-recorded and included in the exhibition.
“Margolles provides focus and brings viewers in close proximity to death to broaden their understanding and stimulate their thinking,” explains Patrice Giasson, Alex Gordon Associate Curator of the Art of the Americas. “The idea was to bear witness and trigger the imagination to help tell the stories that accompanied the works she created.”
Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY and curated by Mr. Giasson. Generous support for the exhibition has been provided by the Alex Gordon Estate. Additional support comes from the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art and by the Purchase College Foundation.
Panel discussions and conversations:
Wednesday, September 2, 12:30pm
“How Artists Respond to Trauma and Urban Violence”
Join the conversation about how creative expression can provide an outlet to communicate ideas, make observations, forge connections, and send powerful messages about violence and injustice. Panelists include Michelle Bishop, founder and president of Harlem Needle Arts Association, which promotes fiber and needle arts in the African Diaspora; Nathan Connolly, assistant professor of history at John’s Hopkins University, whose scholarship focuses on the politics of race, capital, and property; Warren Lehrer, Purchase College Art+Design professor and co-founder of the non-profit community organization EarSay, Inc.; and Lachell Workman, an artist whose work investigates race, identity, society, memory, and trauma.
Note: Artist Teresa Margolles will be in attendance.
Tickets: General admission, 10 USD. Complimentary to Purchase College students, staff, and faculty, as well as to Neuberger Museum of Art Circle Level Members
Wednesday, September 16, 12:30pm
“Crossing the Bridge: Art as a Vehicle for Social Justice”
The Ghana ThinkTank collective (Christopher Robbins and Maria del Carmen Montoya) will discuss ways in which art can function as a vehicle for social justice. Their own practice calls attention and seeks resolution to issues of troubling cross-cultural power dynamics. Citing examples from their own explorations, particularly between immigrants and anti-immigrant factions on the U.S./Mexico border, Robbins and Montoya will make connections to the work of Mexican artist Teresa Margolles.
Tickets: General admission, 10 USD. Complimentary to Purchase College students, staff, and faculty, as well as to Neuberger Museum of Art Circle Level Members
Wednesday, September 23, 4:30pm
“After Death the Tongue Keeps Talking: Crime and Culture in Mexico”
This panel provides multiple perspectives to contextualize Margolles’ work within a larger socio-political framework. Experts in a variety of fields will explore how Margolles’ practice responds to societal structures, political practices, cultural mores, gender relations, and criminal activity prevalent in Mexico. Speakers include: Alberto Medina, associate professor in the Department of Latin American & Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, who specializes in Latin American cultural studies; Pablo Piccato, professor of history at Columbia University, whose scholarship centers on the political and cultural history of Mexico, and the history of crime; Roberta Villalón, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at St. John’s University, author of books on violence against Latina immigrants, collective memory, and justice motivations in Latin America.
Tickets: General admission, 10 USD. Complimentary to Purchase College students, staff, and faculty, as well as to Neuberger Museum of Art Circle Level Members
Wednesday, September 30, 12:30pm “Artista Latina: Teresa Margolles in the Landscape of Latin American Art”
Scholar Marianelly Neumann shares her insight into how Margolles’ work relates to traditions and themes found in the broader context of Latin American art. Neumann is a graduate of Purchase College and has served on the Acquisitions Committee of the Museum of Art in her native Lima, Peru.
Tickets: General admission, 10 USD. Complimentary to Purchase College students, staff, and faculty, as well as to Neuberger Museum of Art Circle Level Members
