Exhibit explores borderlands, memories, politics
Emilio Rojas’ show, tracing a wound through my body, will be on display in the Grossman Gallery, the Williams Center for the Arts, and other locations across campus Sept. 2–Nov. 13.
It will be the first survey of his work spanning the past decade and includes film, photography, poetry, sculpture, installation, and live performance, including a new commission within his series “m(other)s” (2017–ongoing), which employs the 19th-century Victorian genre of “Hidden Mother” photography and features immigrant mothers and children from the Northampton and Lehigh counties, and his live performance Heridas Abiertas (to Gloria) (2014–ongoing), in which a local tattoo artist, Victor Nieto (Famous Tattoo Works), will trace the U.S.-Mexico border down his back.
“His works explore the intersection of borderlands, memories, and politics, and he utilizes his body in a critical way as an instrument to unearth traumas and embody forms of decolonization and migration,” according to exhibit.
Emilio, born in Mexico, is a multidisciplinary artist who holds an MFA in performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in film from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada. His work has been displayed in exhibitions and festivals in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Japan, Austria, England, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Colombia, and Australia.
Emilio Rojas: tracing a wound through my body is guest curated by Laurel V. McLaughlin. The exhibition is supported by the Lafayette College Art Galleries and Collections; the departments of Art, Film & Media Studies, and Anthropology; the Office of Intercultural Development; Skillman Library and Special Collections & College Archives; and the Creative and Performing Arts Scholars Program.
Public programming partners include the Sigal Museum and Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society and Famous Tattoo Works, Easton. All gallery lectures and exhibitions are free and open to the public.
Lafayette College Art Galleries receive state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Learn more about the exhibition, forthcoming catalog, and related programming.
For more information, contact Laurel at lvmclaughlin7@gmail.com. High-resolution images are available by request.