margarita cabrera M a q u i l a

W o m e n & T h e i r W o r k

O c t o b e r 9 – N o v e m b e r 1 3 , 2 0 0 4

A u s t i n , T e x a s margarita cabrera that the maquiladoras are primarily She also attaches some chrome accesso- M a q u i l a assemblage plants where workers gather ries as effective accents. In this context, pre-made parts into final products. Only the primary material takes on new mean- Handmade Machines the appliances’ plastic elements are cre- ing because inexpensive automobile seats ated in the factories that she visited, and are often made of vinyl. The artist uses a Recently Margarita Cabrera purchased a these are the most toxic to manufacture. fabric typically reserved for a car’s interior Volkswagen Beetle sedan, ca 1973, in Intending to bring attention to this to fashion its exterior elements, bringing Juarez, Mexico and drove it across the border industry, Cabrera began creating the inside out and, in a sense, exposing border to her temporary studio in a huge sculptures from the household applianc- private places. The fabric hangs from corner of a transportation warehouse in El es produced there, such as waffle irons, its frame, as if the structure is weak, its Paso, Texas. The car serves as a template for blenders and coffee makers. She replaces interior empty. the two life-size automobiles that she is the made-in-Mexico plastic parts with col- recreating, one in yellow vinyl and the other orful vinyl fabric and keeps the original Cabrera’s sculptures are simulta- in blue. For the past three years Cabrera has appliance’s metal, glass, and electronic parts neously the successors of and the been constructing soft sculptures of house- intact. The texture and color of the vinyl antitheses to Pop Art of the mid-1960s, hold appliances and the Beetles will be her lend a sense of playfulness to each sculpture, especially Claes Oldenburg’s (b. 1929) vinyl largest soft sculptures to date. They will also but the underlying message is serious: U.S. renditions of domestic machines. In form take her out of the domestic realm and into consumers benefit from the labor of under- and materials, Cabrera’s Batter Mixer, the street. paid Mexicans. 2003, directly references Oldenburg’s Soft Dormeyer Mixer, 1965. However, Cabrera was born in Monterrey, Mexico The original VW Beetle was manufac- Oldenburg’s collage of the same title and and raised in Mexico City. During her tured in its entirety in Puebla, Mexico year obviates the differences between teenage years she moved with her fam- for about thirty years, and the last one Cabrera’s conceptual strategies and his ily, first to Salt Lake City and finally rolled off the assembly line in July, 2003. own. The collage constructs a visual to El Paso, a border city located within The VW plant not only created jobs from parallel between the mixer’s pair of walking distance of our southern neighbor. many Mexicans, it also provided them with beaters and a pair of women’s breasts. After spending several years on the east personal and inexpensive transportation, By anthropomorphizing and eroticiz- coast, the artist returned to El Paso in truly a “people’s car.” Consequently, the ing the object, Oldenburg undermined 2001 and began visiting and research- Beetle has attained the status of a national its manufactured identity. Cabrera, on ing the many maquiladoras, or factories, symbol of mobility and liberation. For her the other hand, highlights that iden- located on the Mexican side of the bor- Beetles, like her appliances, Cabrera fab- tity by emphasizing the handmade der. These are, of course, the production ricates the parts made in Mexico (in this quality of her “replica.” She selects thread facilities for U.S. based multi-national case all of them) in brightly colored vinyl. in a color that contrasts with that of the corporations who employ Mexican labor- fabric, and deliberately leaves the ends ers for much lower wages than their U.S. Cleaning Supplies. 2003, Mixed Media: of the thread hanging, as if forgotten. Thus, counterparts demand. Cabrera discovered vinyl, thread, metal. Dimensions Variable Cabrera draws attention to the stitching and, by extension, to the too often dis- in great number in the 19th century at regarded importance of craftsmanship pilgrimage sites along the Camino Real, and design, both in the manufac- or the royal road, that stretched from tured and the handmade. Oldenburg Mexico City, through Juarez and El stuffed his mixer with kapok to make it Paso, to Santa Fe. Created primarily ample, exaggerated, and humorous. In by untrained artists, they were intend- contrast, Cabrera’s vinyl sags, less ed to supplement home worship and substantially than it does on her spiritual and physical healing. In her Beetle, due primarily to its small- version of retablos, Cabrera replaces er scale, but the association with the Christian icon with an image of an empty interiors remains pertinent. appliance, the new object of adoration Oldenburg’s sculpture is oversized, in a culture that cannot seem to carry on reaching to 32 inches high. Cabrera’s without modern conveniences. The artist, is actual size and incorporates select once again, acknowledges the anony- parts of the appliance that inspired it. mous workers, both the painters of Iron. 2004, Mixed Media: vinyl, thread, metal Ironically, Oldenburg increased the scale and electrical wiring. Dimensions Variable the retablos and the makers of the appli- of his pieces in 1962, when he walked ances. This is the intention that underlies by an auto showroom and was struck by lar culture and public character. Cabrera her entire oeuvre: to venerate the anony- the impressive manner in which the cars observes that an underpaid and unacknowl- mous Mexicans that make our lives in the commanded the space. He wanted to fill a edged workforce creates the objects that U.S. more comfortable. gallery space in the same way, so he enlarged characterize our domestic spaces and, by his objects, from hamburgers to mixers to extension, our private lives. Warhol’s aim pieces of cake, to the size of automobiles. was to achieve a machine-made look in art Kate Bonansinga Cabrera springs from this precedent, but, created by humans. Cabrera, on the other Director of the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin with the Beetles, recreates a car to its origi- hand, remakes machine-made objects by Center for the Visual Arts nal scale. Whereas Oldenburg’s works toy hand. She also engages the format of a quilt University of Texas at El Paso with the surreal, Cabrera’s sculptures are and pays tribute to this popular form of folk firmly rooted in today’s realities. art. Warhol demonstrated the omnipres- ence of mass media; Cabrera acknowledges If Cabrera’s sculptures nod to Oldenburg, the pervasiveness of mass production. In her vinyl quilts allude to Andy Warhol spite of the differences in the conceptual (1928-1987). By employing several of intentions of these two artists, they share a Warhol’s aesthetic strategies, Cabrera bright palette, an interest in serial forms, a seduces viewers into drawing parallels critical eye towards consumer culture, and between her and her predecessor, and her art a need to comment on the sociological and draws strength from this association. But economic conditions of the United States Cabrera’s ideas are antithetical to Warhol’s. of their time. Warhol immortalized brand name prod- ucts (Coke, Campbell’s Soup, Brillo) and Though Cabrera’s palette is similar to well-know people (Marilyn, Jackie, Elvis, Warhol’s, its source is the exuberant Liz) by reproducing and repeating their colors of Mexico. The artist is cur- image. Cabrera’s icons are, instead, ubiq- rently engaged not only in creating uitous machines created by anonymous vinyl Beetles, but also in painting her people. Warhol sanctioned stardom. Cabrera own version of Mexican retab- acknowledges unknown laborers. Warhol los. Historical retablos are small commented on how the temporary fame of paintings of Christian subjects, usually on a few products and people define our popu- tin-coated iron, and were produced and sold margarita cabrera 2001 Two to Tango,Times Square Gallery, NY Born in Mexico 2000 Paperveins Biennial 2000, HERE Art, New York, NY Resides in El Paso, TX Weight as Real, House Gallery, Long Island City, NY

EDUCATION 1999 War, Artist Bulletin Board, Postmasters, New York, NY 2001 MFA, Combined Media Staff Show, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Hunter College of the City University of New York, NY 1998 Par Avion, Hunter College, New York, NY 1997 BFA, Sculpture 1997 BFA Exhibition, Hunter College, New York, NY Hunter College of the City University of New York, NY Young Artists Exhibition, New World Art Center, Maryland Institute College of Art, Maryland New York, NY

SOLO EXHIBITIONS RESIDENCIES 2004 Maquila, Women & Their Work, Austin, TX Border Art Residency, La Union, NM 2003 appliance: all tools must be kept ready for instant use International Exchange Residency, Academia of Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York, NY Minerva, Groningen, Holland 2002 Dynamic Peripheries, Plan b Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1999 Cazanovia, Cazanovia College, NY 2003 Cotter, Holland. Critical Consumption, The New York 1998 RKS (two-person show), Groningen, Holland Times, March 7. 2002 Cotter, Holland. The S Files, The New York Times. GROUP EXHIBITIONS Popeson, Pamela A. El Museo’s Bienal 2002, NY Arts. 2004 Domestic Oddesy, Curated by JoAnne Northrup, San 2002 The S Files, the biennial of El Museo Del Barrio, Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Absolutearts. Borderlands, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX The S Files 2002, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (catalogue) 2003-4 Blanc, Curated by Odalis Valdivieso, Mexican Institute Randall, Teri T., Sculpture Elicits Look at Border of Culture, Washington D.C.; Design District, Miami FL Issues: Margarita Cabrera’s art straddles the Rio 2003 Piece of Work: Fiber and Multiples, Dallas Center for Grande, Pasatiempo, April 19-25. Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX Rodriguez, Francesca. North of the Border, Santa Fe CORPORAL: Contemporary Women Artists from Reporter, April 17- 23. Latin America, Curated by Giannina Dwin Schmidt Rodriguez, Francesca. Interview with Margarita Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL Cabrera, Dynamic Peripheries, The Center for Critical Consumption, Curated by Jonathan Allen, Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Margarita Cabrera: Dynamic Peripheries, THE, 2002-3 The S-Files, El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY Magazine of the Arts, April. 2002 It’s a Glamorous Life, The Mexic-Arte Museum, Shamly, Erica. The Latina Experience Begets Austin, TX Unclassifiable Originality, Artlies, Fall, Houston TX Mix Series Wall Power, The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, Dallas, TX This Panel: VOCHO VW Beetle Sedan. 2004, Mixed Media: vinyl, thread, and model parts. 3 1/4" x 9" x 4" Cover Panel: 10 Objects. 2001-2004, Food Processor, Batter Mixer, Pink Blender, Waffle Maker, Black Toaster, Slow Cooker, Pink Sewing Machine, Coffee Maker M.I.M, “Francois Francois” Expresso Machine, Red Vacuum Cleaner. Mixed Media: vinyl, thread, metal. Dimensions Variable “Francois Francois” Expresso Machine Quilt. 2004, Detail, Mixed Media: vinyl, thread. Dimensions Variable

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