Studio Project 2 — Proposal

The semesters reading that inspired my studio project is “Keeping Close to Home” by bell hooks. I found it extremely relatable because, coming from Venezuela, I know what it is and how it feels to have a troubled past with one’s home. I hold my home country very close to my heart and feel incredibly great full and proud to be Venezuelan. Nonetheless, it is no secret that my country has and is now under immense corruption. The majority of people are starving, getting paid monthly wages that can barely afford a day worth of food, and dealing with insecurity and poor living conditions. I agree with this reading because I feel like it is extremely important to hold home (whatever meaning that has for each individual) close to us in some way or the other. After all, home is where our roots are, it is where we still are, and where we came from. I was inspired by Doris Salcedo, a Colombian artist, and more specifically by her work titled “Shibboleth.” In her artist statement, Salcedo explains that Shibboleth “represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred. It is the experience of a Third World person coming into the heart of Europe.” I found this piece extremely relatable to me and to the piece I want to create. Like Salcedo, I find myself wanting to create something that represents a division, a “border”, and also the “Third World person coming into the heart of Europe” but changing it to a person who comes, or was born in a third world country (me) and migrated to the United States. That idea of separating the reach form the poor, the privileged from the unprivileged, and the idea of separating two things that are both part of the same thing but simultaneously opposite. For my project I will make one water globe souvenir (possibly at a larger scale than normal) because I think that these objects often depict beautiful scenarios, and places. I want to create a three dimensional piece that contains imagery of the “barrios” or the housing of the poor Venezuelans (that are often tiny houses piled up one over the other on the mountains) . I want to create a piece that shows the bad side of my country in terms of poverty, all inside a larger scale water globe that signifies privilege, travel, and what is supposed to contain something beautiful. I plan to work individually and experiment using the materials I have left over from my other classes as well as materials I find around ( I only plan to buy a glass sphere for the globe as of now).