Nancy Ariza (The Land Within Us)
How would you describe your art practice in three words?
Memory, Connection, and Repetition
What is your favorite art medium to work with?
Printmaking, and if I had to pick a favorite process I would say woodcut. I enjoy the meditative nature of carving. And because you can’t go back and fix mistakes during the carving process, it forces you to embrace or let go of imperfections which are often things that you, as the artists, only see. As someone who typically wants to control every aspect of the process, I find this freeing.
Please tell us about the artwork you are showing in The Land Within Us?
I have two pieces in The Land Within Us from an older body of work, specifically a participatory installation where I pay homage to the matriarchal figures in my family and invite the audience to do the same for their own.
My artistic practice explores objects of material culture and ephemera as a means of connecting to and creating meaning of my Mexican roots and ancestral lineage. Objects are often illustrated as portraits and serve as metaphorical representations of the ancestor spirits, thus becoming essential to building and maintaining relationships with those who cannot be physically with us.
So this body of work began with the piece Cartas de mis tías y mi abuela, screenprinted handwritten letters from my aunts and grandmother. The letters, written in Spanish, include messages of the importance of expressing love between family members because “in doing so we strengthen familial ties and our own being.” The letters, written in response to attending my wedding, are also a symbolic transition into womanhood as I began a new journey of life guided by their wisdom.
As the women on one side of the family communicate through words, the other side expressed their sentiments through objects. La Cazuelita (The little casserole dish) is a gift from my mother which has become a symbol of my female ancestors and the preservation of our Mexican culture. Through conversations with family members, I learned about my grandmother (who passed away before I was born), and her love of traditional Mexican earthenware, ollas y cazuelas de barro. Not only were they used for cooking, but they were displayed throughout the home because of their beauty. This is where my mother gets her love of the traditional cookware, which she still uses today. Cooking is something that has helped her remain connected to her Mexican roots throughout the past 45 years that she has been in the United States. As my mother gives my sisters and me our own ollas y cazuelas de barro, it becomes a treasured object that not only connects us to her, but also to my grandmother and other matriarchs who have passed on.
