Rabbit Garcia
De Colores (Made Of Colors), 2020

clay bricks, Styrofoam and glass beads
42”H x 16”W x 16”D

ARTwork statement:

De Colores is a reflection on the artist’s experiences as a first generation queer Mexican immigrant living in the U.S. The name of the piece is inspired by a well known folk song in Latin American countries with the same title--serving as an allegory of hope and peace. The piece is dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ BIPOC community that have migrated to the United States with hopes of having a better life. As a small monument to their truths and realities, De Colores represents the hope that the queer community fosters during unprecedented times for our most marginalized within the landscape of U.S. culture. The piece’s brick foundation highlights the mistreatment of people with diverse identities living under the white supremacy of the U.S. They allude to the unbuilt wall that first garnered support in the 1940’s, but did not get processed until 1994 when the Clinton administration launched an attempt. As such, the motif of “The Wall” has come to depict inhuman border policies against migrants. Inversely, the bricks are also a symbol of resistance against that same white supremacy as queer histories have taught us. The gaps between the bricks represent the obstacles we encounter as we navigate Western society and its politics. A map of the Americas has been carved to represent the pre-colonized people’s land. The 244 tally marks behind the map stand for each year since the United States was founded and evokes questioning the integrity of the “Land of the Free.” In compositional juxtaposition, the glass beads in the sculpture stand out against the dreariness of the bricks. Colored glass beads are used throughout the Americas by many indigenous communities to make art or adorn themselves. As cultural icons, colored glass beads are symbols of power, resilience, and perseverance in the face of colonialism. In De Colores, the beads serve as an intricate, colorful, and interconnected representation of all of us, or in other words, “we are made of colors.”

ARTIST BIO:

Rabbit Garcia, is a visual artist. Using a broad range of materials ranging from the incredibly light to the surprisingly heavy to depict depth, Garcia creates artworks that illustrate the differences each of us carry metaphorically. He is interested in the social and cultural factors that fracture our identities, exploring issues such as class and queerness, with the goal of reconstructing histories from broken pieces. His work explores narratives that are not distinctive to his own.