Margarita Cabrera
Secuelas: cuerpo, tierra, y mar

September 6th - October 26th, 2024
Reception: Friday, September 6th, 6 - 8 PM

Jane Lombard Gallery is pleased to present Secuelas: cuerpo, tierra, y mar (Repercussions: body, land, and water), a solo exhibition by gallery artist Margarita Cabrera. Secuelas marks the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery. Utilizing textile, gouache, dye, copper, and sound, the works delve into Cabrera's unyielding exploration of global policies surrounding migration, displacement, and capitalism. The exhibition will run from September 6th - October 26th with an opening reception on Friday, September 6th, 6 - 8 PM.

Secuelas: cuerpo, tierra, y mar weaves together narratives of immigration, identity, and heritage, addressing both historical and present-day perspectives of colonization. Emphasizing currency as a marker of power dynamics behind contemporary border relations, Craft of Resistance, a kaleidoscope of copper butterflies, swarms across the gallery walls. The copper sculptures, fabricated in a maquiladora-type setting, are imprinted with the wing pattern of the monarch butterfly on one side and the impression of the American penny on the other. The work speaks to the transformation of transborder experiences as well as the invisible labor behind Mexican and US economies.

El Vaivén del Mar, the central installation of the exhibition, features a soft sculpture ship sailing upon a vibrant sea of intertwined flamenco dresses. Taking the shape of the undulating waves, the dresses layered upon one another, ruffle and fall, suggesting the violence associated with navigating turbulent waters and subjecting unwilling communities. The ship references Spanish fleets that once transported the enslaved between the African coast and colonies of the New World while also pointing to the pervasive influence and control America extorts over current global affairs. Fabricated from US border officer uniforms and constructed into the form of an Iberian trading vessel, the ship becomes a symbol and a vehicle of justification for exploitation. El Vaivén del Mar brings contemporary immigration policies into question, illustrating the enduring legacy of conquest through the movement, fluctuation, and reshaping of collective colonial histories.

Utilizing culturally charged materials and community participation, Cabrera's ongoing collaborative series Space in Between investigates migratory crossroads, focusing on the experience of the borderlands and the people who cross them. Transforming US Border Patrol uniforms into indigenous plants, Cabrera works with recent migrant communities to embroider their personal stories onto the work. New iterations to this series expand beyond the Mexico & US border to include perspectives of cross-continental relocation from that of Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Pakistan to Spain, in particular, Barcelona. Accordingly, the soft sculptures take on the shape of the native flora and fauna of the region of their embroiderer. This expansion reinforces the symbolic landscape of ‘spaces in between,’ where relationships across divides are renegotiated. Similarly, Cabrera’s ongoing series El Flujo de Extracciones, continues to explore the extraction of natural resources, the exploitation of indigenous knowledge and culture through fabric collage with gouache and cochineal dye. 

Pepita Para El Loro Para Que Hable o Calle, Cabrera’s life-size sculptures of endangered red-crowned Amazon parrots engage viewers in an immediate dialogue about border politics and surveillance. These robotic birds, equipped with voice-activated mimicry devices, create a cacophonous chatter that mirrors the contentious public discourse around border crossings and immigrant detention. The new iterations of these parrots will feature pre-recorded messages by Cabrera describing the use of surveillance equipment in areas of war and political unrest as prototypes for similar technologies used at the US border, underscoring the global consequences of control tactics. Secuelas: cuerpo, tierra, y mar offers a profound exploration of the intersections between art, history, and social justice, inviting viewers to engage with multilateral experiences of displacement, subjugation, and supremacy.                                         

Image caption: Margarita Cabrera, (detail) Space in Between – Pitaya, in collaboration with E.G.M. (Mexico/US).