Existing comment:
Sandra C. Fernández
born New York City 1964
Mourning and Dreaming High: con mucha fé
2014–18
lithography, thread drawings, milagros, collage, pages of an 18th-century book
Fernández ponders our societal response to Dreamers, young people who have lived in the U.S. without official authorization since being brought to the country as minors. She created this work following President Barack Obama's 2012 executive memorandum known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which conferred work permits and protection from deportation for Dreamers who met certain criteria. The work superimposes the solemn likenesses of Dreamers onto the pages of an eighteenth-century English law book documenting cases of high crimes and misdemeanors, an indirect reference to how Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants are criminalized in today's public sphere. Fernández also printed text from the Codex Mendoza, a Spanish colonial-era book, which conjures the Conquest as a starting point to the crises of today, such as forced migration, border-making, and political strife.
Museum purchase through the Frank K. Ribelin Endowment, 2019.34.1A-S |