I am an incoming PhD student in the History of Art and Architecture (HAA) department at Pitt and a former Hot Metal Bridge Post-Baccalaureate Fellow (2019-2020 AY). My research focuses on art production in carceral spaces in the United States and Latin America. In my fellowship year in HAA, I developed my research to focus on Latin American immigration, borders, and Latinx studies within the framework of mass incarceration. This summer, especially given the limitations imposed by COVID-19, I sought a way to continue developing my own research while also working to create a public-facing component. In addition, I had the goal of strengthening my research and writing skills.

In an effort to work towards these goals this summer, I am completing a research immersive with Monument Lab, a public art and history studio based in Philadelphia. Monument Lab seeks to operate within anti-racist, de-colonial, feminist, queer, working class, ecological, and other social justice perspectives. Additionally, Monument Lab prioritizes collaboration between the Lab, affiliated artists, and the public. The commitment to the public – both public art and the communities served by the Lab – mirrors my own commitment to developing work that maintains a public-facing component as a tool of social justice.  

I am spending the summer researching and building a database of monuments along or upon the U.S.-Mexico border. Monument Lab defines a monument as “a statement of power and presence in public.” In keeping with this broad definition, I am investigating and archiving not just physical monuments at the border, but also performance, temporary installations, and other artistic interventions. Compiling these works not only fills a void in the art historical canon, it is hugely beneficial to my own research as I am building an archive that will form the basis of a seminar paper this fall and potentially a Masters paper.

Additionally, I have the privilege of assisting and collaborating with a Monument Lab artist partner, Michelle Angela Ortiz. She is a visual artist, skilled muralist, and community educator whose work focuses on narratives of people from marginalized communities, especially immigrant communities. This summer I am assisting with two projects: Familias Separadas (Phase 3) and a hemispheric Latinx artist research project. The first project deals with creative actions in locations that have an immigrant detention center, and the second works to compile and activate narratives of Latinx artists and their processes. With both of these projects, I am working in a research capacity, a task that strengthens the skills necessary for my graduate program.

I look forward to continuing my work with Monument Lab through the summer and into the fall through further development of the research that I have done thus far. The data collected regarding monuments and the U.S.-Mexico border will become the basis of a seminar paper concerned with the entanglement of the built environment and the natural landscape. Working with Michelle Angela Ortiz has helped me further understand the role of the artist as activist, as well as the working processes of her and other artists included in the project. Thus far, the component of this summer immersive that I have enjoyed the most is the opportunity to participate in a critical reinterpretation of history that seeks to acknowledge and elevate marginalized artists, artworks, experiences, and communities.

For my reflections post-immersive, please see Moving Across Time, Medium, and Space: My Work with Monument Lab.

Learn about all the Summer 2020 Immersive Fellows and their experiences with their host organizations.