‘Very few museums were interested in my work until recently’: Amalia Mesa-Bains on her first-ever retrospective
‘Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory’ is a long-overdue exhibition at El Museo del Barrio in New York celebrating five decades of the trailblazing Chicanx artist
‘Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory’ marks a significant milestone as the first retrospective dedicated to the pioneering Chicanx installation artist, curator and theorist Amalia Mesa-Bains. Organised by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and hosted at El Museo del Barrio in New York, the exhibition provides a rare and long-overdue opportunity to delve into three decades of the artist’s genre-defying artworks, including her emblematic large-scale altar installations, prints, books and codices – many seen together for the first time.
Amalia Mesa-Bains recounts her spellbinding artistic journey
Despite delving into intersectional feminist themes, environmentally-centred spirituality and cultural diversity to challenge the racist and gendered erasures of colonial repression for nearly half a century, Mesa-Bains confesses she never expected to have a retrospective. ‘Very few mainstream museums in this country were interested in my work until quite recently,’ the artist shares with Wallpaper*.
Born in California in 1943 to a Mexican immigrant family, Mesa-Bains grew up in a largely undocumented community. ‘I always knew I was born in the States but was raised as a Mexican, which seemed confusing. Turning to art at a young age and encountering the Chicano movement offered me a real sense of belonging,’ she reflects. Beginning her artistic exploration within the intimate sphere of family and community, alongside fellow Latinos and artists of colour, led Mesa-Bains to research Mexican ancestral traditions during the mid-1970s.
Mesa-Bains’ extensive exploration culminates in her large-scale reinterpretations of home altars and ofrendas (offerings to the deceased), which serve as alternative sacred spaces for Mexican and Latino communities diverging from traditional church settings and a way for women to extend spiritual power in the home – as seen in The Library of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1994/2021). Mesa-Bains emphasises how both forms of expression also contribute to the cultural reclamation of Chicanx communities: ‘The recognition of the dead as an ongoing part of one’s life and the celebration of life as a joyous tradition offers an alternative to the Anglo-American approach to mourning and death.’
In pieces like Queen of the Waters, Mother of the Land of the Dead (1992), which pays homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe and Tonantzin and is showcased in the exhibition, Mesa-Bains draws inspiration from women across personal, historical and religious realms, portraying them as embodiments of spiritual and intellectual authority. Reflecting on this, she remarks, ‘Women of colour need to work together to liberate ourselves. Class and race have always intersected my life: I watched my mother clean houses of naval families and learned to enter their homes by side or back doors.’
The 40 artworks featured in ‘Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory’ offer a comprehensive overview of the artist’s evolution, showcasing her enduring commitment to social justice issues. The exhibition’s title nods to Mesa-Bains’ conviction that memory is a powerful tool for challenging the legacies of colonisation. Mirrors strategically placed throughout the exhibition, such as in Circle of Ancestors (1995), dissolve the divide between the viewer and the artwork, symbolising luminosity, reflection, and identity. Mesa-Bains notes, ‘Many visitors share images of themselves reflected in the mirrors, sparking discussions about the complexities of their own existence.’
‘Archaeology of Memory’ represents the first occasion where the Mesa-Bains’ Venus Envy (1993) series is showcased entirely, consolidating four chapters previously exhibited across various institutional venues. This body of work stands as a bold reinterpretation of the Freudian notion of Penis Envy (1908), reclaiming agency over women’s psychosexual development – an idea Mesa-Bains encountered during her training as a psychologist. Intriguingly, the genesis of Venus Envy coincided with Mesa-Bains’ battle with heart and lung disease, a health crisis that starkly confronted her mortality. This experience prompted her to refocus her artistic endeavours towards a more introspective exploration of themes surrounding the body, spirit and culture, realising the urgency of sharing her own narrative.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
At 80 years old, Mesa-Bains has recently found herself invigorated by the landscape surrounding her home and the parallels between ageing and nature’s cyclical rhythms. The artist reveals her recent musings on the concept of a tree library, a collection of books, plant and tree specimens, and archival prints concerning healing practices. ‘I feel as though this world of natural growth is an extension of my lifelong concern with healing.’ The artist finishes the interview by reciting a line by philosopher Nezahualcoyotl: ‘We are like the spring grass / We bud, blossom, dry up and blow away / We were never meant to be on this earth forever.’
‘Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory’ is on view at El Museo del Barrio in New York until 11 August 2024, elmuseo.org
Sofia de la Cruz is the Travel Editor at Wallpaper*. She was born in Madrid, Spain but moved to London when she was 14 years old. Being exposed to the city’s creative pulse at such a young age shaped her into the inquisitive professional she is today. Before joining the Wallpaper* team in 2023, she worked for Hypebae and Hypebeast UK, where she focused on the intersection of art, fashion, and culture. Additionally, she contributed to Futurevvorld by covering a variety of sustainability topics.
-
Hong Kong brutalism explored: tour the island with this new architectural map
Hong Kong brutalism is brought into sharp focus through the launch of Brutalist Hong Kong Map, the latest of its kind in publisher Blue Crow Media’s 20th-century architecture series
By Yoko Choy Published
-
Diego Faivre’s playful homage to Australia's vanishing milk bar
Diego Faivre uses Play-Doh to recreate an Australian milk bar in an exhibition titled ‘Diego Super Bonza Store’ at Melbourne’s Useful Objects gallery
By Elias Redstone Published
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in London
Ndayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
By Phin Jennings Published
-
Inside Luna Luna: the amusement park designed by artists lands in New York
‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – has opened at The Shed
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditions
Concurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next Door
The Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
By Anne Soward Published
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New York
Violet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
By Mary Cleary Published
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American West
The artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990s
New York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black men
The late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New York
Artist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
By Hannah Silver Published