Consuelo Jiménez Underwood at the Conley Art Gallery, California State University, Fresno

Curator: Julia Bradshaw

EXHIBITION BROCHURE: PDF of "Undocumented Borderlands", the exhibition brochure with an essay by Dr. Clara Roman-Odio.

PRESS:

Munro, Donald "Exhibition centered around immigration, migration and labor", Fresno Bee, September 1, 2011

Pena, Lindsey "Undocumented Borderlands", KSEE News, September 7, 2011

Patton, Dylan "Art with a message", The Collegian, September 9, 2011

Waldron, Rachel "Undocumented Borderlands featured in the Conley Art Gallery", The Collegian, September 13, 2011

Flores, Janet, Art Attack radio broadcast, 88.1 KFCF Free Speech Radio, September 15, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

August 9, 2011 – Contemporary fiber artist and weaver Consuelo Jiménez Underwood exhibits “Undocumented Borderlands” - an art exhibition that links physical and cultural borders and the condition of the natural environment around those national borders - at the Conley Art Gallery in the Department of Art and Design at California State University, Fresno. The public is invited to a reception for the artist from 5pm – 8pm on Thursday, September 8 and to an artist lecture at 6pm in Conley Art lecture room 101 also on Thursday, September 8. The art gallery is open from 10am – 4pm Monday through Friday from September 9 to September 30, 2011.

Created specifically for the Conley Art Gallery the installation ‘Undocumented Border Flowers’, is a representation of the ten pairs of sister cities of the U.S./Mexican border and the environmental and political struggle along the border. By using textiles, paint, barbed-wires and nails Jiménez Underwood captures the tension and the beauty of the land between these two states. “My art is a combination of land, spirit and struggle” says Jiménez Underwood “and by weaving historical, social and personal references into my artwork I am representing cultural resistance and spirituality.”

Frequently using the tortilla as a symbol, Jiménez Underwood uses fibers, wire, corn husks and other materials to visually represent the beauty and the political and cultural struggle of the Mexican border. Melding weaving and fiber techniques, Jiménez Underwood encourages viewers to consider borders as cultural constructs. Writing of her work, Dr. Clara Román-Odio of Kenyon College says: “the artist presents us with multiple iterations of the simple tortilla, as a symbol of the pervasiveness of indigenous cultures, and of the immemorial eating habits they shared. Masterfully she also employs the tortilla as a platform to engage the viewer in political commentary about national territories, while addressing spirituality as a form of cultural resistance.”

Born in Sacramento in 1949, Consuelo Jiménez Underwood is the daughter of migrant agricultural workers —a Chicana mother and an undocumented father of Huichol Indian descent. Her work is in the collections of the Oakland Art Museum, CA; the American Art Museum of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC; and the Museum of Art and Design in New York City among others. She has degrees in religious studies and art, and is an Emeritus Professor at San Jose State University, California.

The exhibition “Undocumented Borderlands” is the first exhibition of a year-long series of events on the theme of immigration, migration and labor hosted by the Center of Creativity and the Arts at Fresno State. The exhibition was organized by Professor Julia Bradshaw of the Department of Art and Design.