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Who Belongs? This piece is based on a quote that I had heard at a protest held by students at the University of Utah in defense of DEl. We gathered because of the unfair and unjust closing of multiple of the University of Utah's DEI centers on campus in relation to an anti-DEl law that was put into place just before the start of the 2024-2025 school year. Some centers that were closed were the LGBT Resource Center, the Women's Resource Center, and the Center for Equity and Student Belonging. The quote was from one of the student speakers who told our crowd; "The funny thing about insects is that they are often more scared of you than you are of them", while she was talking about the lawmakers who created HB 261 that gave the U an excuse to close these critical centers of belonging. Taking that to heart, and quite literally, I created this piece in response. When you preach belonging on campus and then turn around and close centers that explicitly exist to create safe spaces for minorities and people who have been othered for generations, people notice.
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Conquest of Teotihuacan This piece is very personal to me, As it goes over some of the historical themes of colonization of Latin Americas Teotihuacan. The gilded burning could be interpreted as a loss of a culture, while still holding on to an idea of transformation and rebirth through modern indigenous movements of reclaiming their traditions and heritage. I strongly share this sentiment in my daily studies of how I can grow as a spiritual soul through my native roots, as an interpretation of my soul a blaze with fear or lack of understanding.
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Hot Wheels Named after the toy a mall Santa suggested when he heard a 5-year old boy ask for a Barbie, "Hot Wheels" is based on the shame boys with feminine interests feel when they are socialized to feel as such. A baby blue coffin is the final resting place for a collection of disfigured dolls, a mournful symbol of burying one's feelings to conform.
