Adrienne Rivera, Both Ways, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Back Turned, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Wet, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Dry, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Trenzas I, The Roots Series, 2024\
Adrienne Rivera, Trenzas II, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Half & Half, The Roots Series, 2024
Adrienne Rivera, Tubi, The Roots Series, 2024
I created an eight part series titled "The Roots Series", in which I explore my intersectionality as a queer Latina American and, through my own experience, reflect that of my community's. The series primarily focuses on our natural curly hair and the intimate process of doing each other's hair, which symbolizes both the joy and the tribulations we face as Latinas in the U.S. In the photo series, my roommate and I dissect our intersecting identities—mine as a queer, first-generation Latina American, and hers as a queer Dominican immigrant woman in the US. We explore themes of time, with me reflecting on my past and her looking toward her future in this country. As Dominican women, we were inspired to celebrate our multigenerational-mixed heritage. At the same time, we confront the obstacles we face in both in Latin America and the USA as the results of colonialism, imperialism, and christinization, such as sexism, colorism, texturism, featurism, and, of course, racism. Carrie Mae Weems once said, “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” This quote resonated deeply with me and inspired the process for me to capture our reality. By capturing the individual, or two, in this case—we offer a window into an entire community. It becomes a way to uplift and center marginalized groups, showing how the sum of the parts reflects the whole. We were also heavily inspired by Ana Mendieta, whose work we connected with on a personal level. Mendieta, a Cuban immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child, once said in an interview, “I was torn away from the womb, from the motherland, and I guess that’s one of the reasons I’ve gone back and worked with nature.” Her experience of displacement deeply resonated with us, and we, too, felt a responsibility to return to the natural. As modern women, we constantly feel the pressure to conform to societal expectations of beauty. And as Latinas in America, we are expected to adhere to both our own cultural beauty standards and those imposed by others in the process of assimilation which has a beginning with no given end. We represented this tension in several pieces, where intimate moments suddenly take on a dark or eerie tone as the subjects become aware of being observed. In a New York Times interview, Mendieta said, “The making of my ‘Silueta’ in nature keeps the transition between my homeland and my new home…It is a way of reclaiming my roots and becoming one with nature. Although the culture in which I live is part of me, my roots and cultural identity are a result of my Cuban heritage.” Through our work, we fight against the ways we are expected to be perceived, attempting to preserve what remains of the past while navigating our present identities and the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment