Indoor (2008-2009)

Photography.

In this project, I am interested in representing manifestations of the intimate nature present in each of the choices that determine where to accommodate an object, how to group it, separate it, or privilege it within the home. My transition from documenting the self-constructed settlements’ exteriors to the interior of the dwelling, is like moving from a uniformly flat exterior light to an interior partially dark, full of subjective tones and intense emotional relationships.

I use the syntax of objects and space as a point of departure in the conceptualization of my images, emphasizing the order and the ways in which objects get accommodated inside the domestic environment. I seek to emphasize the particular thing itself, as well as the individual present in the use of an object, and its arrangement in a place, to give it meaning within the space of gestures, whims and obsessions that obey a dimension of the human condition which goes beyond the simply utilitarian object or the social condition.

For a year, I worked within the Nuevo Milenio 2000 neighborhood, located next to the university where I was teaching at the time, in the Playas de Tijuana area. In this community, families paid for their plots of land in monthly installments over several years. However, when they were nearing the end of their payments and went to the local government offices to initiate the paperwork to obtain their property documents, the housing agency officials informed them that the land was situated in a high-risk zone due to the dangerous and unstable topography. As a result, they would not be able to secure ownership documents for their land. The person who sold them the land was likely aware of this but never disclosed it to them.

This situation exposes the complexities, corruption, and speculation surrounding land in a city with some of the highest living costs in Mexico. Through this experience, I encountered another facet of the housing crisis and access to housing in Tijuana, where narratives of precariousness intertwine with corruption. It is a dramatic reminder of how the urban landscape is shaped by forces of power and neglect, revealing the stark realities of those navigating these spaces.

Exhibition view: Being Here With You/Estando aquí contigo: 42 Artists from San Diego and Tijuana. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA. September, 2018.

Exhibition view: Being Here With You/Estando aquí contigo: 42 Artists from San Diego and Tijuana. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA. September, 2018.