Just across the U.S. border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, women are brutally murdered, mutilated and then tossed into the desert like trash.
Laura Burns? photographic portraits of the Mexican women who have escaped that gruesome destiny are on display at the Creative Alliance.
Her installation, “Homenaje,” reveals 86 portraits of women who toil in factories, or maquiladoras built on cheap labor and no tarrifs, and the women who work in small businesses and support organizations for women in Mexico. Burns pairs her photographs in “Homenaje” with words from Gloria Anzaldúa, Ariel Dorfman and Jacques Rancière.
Before its U.S. debut in Baltimore, “Homenaje” toured Mexico for nearly three years. Burns teaches photography at Goucher College.
QUESTION: Why did you create “Homenaje?”
ANSWER: [The murders] are very upsetting but to add to that the government is very nonchalant about them. They say “Oh, she was probably wearing a very short skirt.” So we?re dealing with cultural attitudes towards women and a huge rash of very violent killings. The domestic violence escalated to people actually killing their partners, spouse, girlfriend because you could and it didn?t matter.
Q” What did you tell your subjects?
A: I told them I wanted to make photographs of women who are alive ? kicking and fighting. They stand in honor of young women who have died. I didn?t want to focus on the murders. People have done that already and described the brutality. I?m not interested in victimhood. The photographs are simple with the women looking into the camera. I made the pictures with the intention that they would be seen together. They?re meant to be shown in a large group, as a collective, saying “We?re not going away.”
Q: What influenced your work?
A :While [shooting] in the back of my mind, I was thinking about how women are represented. In a lot of Mexican comics, ads and newspapers, women are highly sexualized. These women [in the portraits] didn?t have the chance to fix themselves up. They?re in work clothes. I think the women are beautiful and [the photographs] take a different look at what beauty is. It doesn?t have to be so sexualized.
Q How did NAFTA affect Ciudad Juarez?
A: With NAFTA, the numbers of assembly plants grew hugely so people migrated from parts south in Mexico north, which put a rather large strain on parts like Tijuana and Juarez … Drug trafficking patterns changed from coming in through the Carribean to coming through Juarez and Tijuana. So you have a huge influx of migrants, poverty and then drugs.
IF YOU GO
Laura Burns: Homenaje
» When: Through March 29
» Where: Creative Alliance at The Patterson, 3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore
» Info: 410-276-1651
