This exhibition revisits the Declaration of Independence through the lens of those impacted by our social and political climate.
Curator’s Statement:
What truths do we, as working class Americans, hold to be self-evident? This exhibition presents the work of 18 different artists. Through these pieces we hope to demonstrate the incongruence between our founding texts and the lived experiences of workers, artists, and marginalized peoples.
The Declaration of Independence defines this unquestionable promise of freedom and equality, however since its inception this document has proven to be exclusionary.
Dismissed or reinterpreted by the ruling class in order to support different political agendas throughout the centuries. We ask the viewer to question these founding texts, to ask whose lives are protected by these ideals and whose are targeted?
Through their practice, these artists portray reality as they experience it. Honest, chaotic, hopeful, and aware. The artwork invites the viewer to understand these inconsistencies, asking that we pay attention to the injustices others face on a daily basis. Ultimately giving form to the voices, histories, and demands shaping our collective future.
Artist Bio:
Jazmine Puentes is a painter born and raised in Southeast San Diego, California on occupied Kumeyaay Land. She creates from home where her creativity flows with mixtures of colorful acrylics as her preferred medium of practice. She paints animals, insects, flowers, and plants as reoccurring subjects in her work inspired by Mexican and Indigenous symbolism. They represent people and play an important role within the message of the artwork. Her pieces are time stamps from influential events in her life that are conveyed through personal reflections. Grief has become a prominent theme embedded in her work as she explores its significance by reconnecting with her cultural identity. This has encouraged her to create vivid narratives about grief as beautiful cycles of life. Not only grieving about loved ones but also shedding layers of the self.
Her work interprets an introspective exploration of self-transformation and the complexities of internal development, weaving together narratives drawn from her life and upbringing. She instills the influences of her cultural beliefs like folklores and traditions to create dreamy cosmic landscapes, integrating all forms of nature and living beings. They are utilized in her paintings to uplift their importance meanwhile reconnecting the relationship to her cultural identity with their symbolism, offering a visual homage in honoring the land, ancestors, and people. Each piece has their own individual meaning or significant message from a personal point of view that capture emotions and highlight an important moment in time. Altogether, her vibrant collection speaks about the internal struggles of grief, the process of healing, celebrating life, the contrast between life and death, transforming identity, and the importance of nature.