Gallery100 + ProjectSPACE : Jorge Villarreal

As a Photographer who grew up on the Mexico / US border, I'm interested in the ways space and culture are demarcated. My work investigates the tension of the “Between” of being both ‘of’ and ‘othered.’ I use the language of one culture to investigate and challenge the other. Utilizing color, symbolism, ritual, and iconography to explore divisions both personal and political. By allowing visions of magic realism to influence current and past experiences the Sink series delves into intimate spaces in order to address emotional upheaval and personal loss. I use organic subjects that symbolize the death and rebirth that happen throughout our lives revealing the beauty that is lost during the transition showing you not only colors of life, but just as importantly of death. A sink is a personal place of cleansing, where we perform a routine ritual daily. I use this sacred place as an altar to show guilt, regret and sorrow washed away. The tension between the cultures of rationalism and magic realism collide in my work. Not only questioning the physical walls that divide specific boundaries, but societal expressions of emotions and beliefs.

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