Navigating the intricacies of the US-Mexico border, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood journeys through the complications.
In the serene studio nestled near Gualala, California, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, a renowned fiber artist, spends her days weaving, drafting, and creating art that resonates deeply with issues of cultural identity, border issues, and social justice.
Born in Sacramento in 1949, Jimenez Underwood has an intimate relationship with the US-Mexico border, having crossed it numerous times during her youth. This connection is evident in her work, which often explores the complexities and controversies surrounding the border.
Jimenez Underwood's studio is a treasure trove of creativity, filled with two looms, two drafting tables, boxes of fabric, and an array of tools such as rulers, vases full of safety pins and buttons, and a mannequin adorned with a denim jacket she embroidered in the '70s.
One of her most celebrated works, Run, Jane, Run! (2004), now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is a vibrant yellow piece that stops you in your tracks. At its center is the word "caution," with an image of three figures (seemingly a father, mother, and their daughter) running. The imagery was drawn from a series of "immigrant crossing signs" that the California Department of Transportation erected along Interstate 5 near the US-Mexico border.
Jimenez Underwood has also made a significant impact in the realm of fiber art, demonstrating that what can be done on a painted canvas can be done in fiber. Carmen Febles is currently working on a monograph on Jimenez Underwood, highlighting her groundbreaking work in this field.
In 2005, Jimenez Underwood confronted the border in an "in your face" manner in a performance titled Tortilla Meets Tortilla Wall. On a trip to the border at San Diego, she put a tortilla sculpture in the Pacific Ocean as an offering to a place that had been divided.
Throughout her career, Jimenez Underwood has created a series of works titled "Burial Shrouds," each one measuring to the height of the person to whom it is dedicated and varying to highlight individual personalities. One of these shrouds, the shroud for Woody Guthrie, is an almost monochromatic design made from natural linen, a nod to the musician's nickname as the Dust Bowl Troubadour.
Jimenez Underwood has also addressed the issue of border walls in her work. For instance, in Undocumented Border Flowers (2010), she marked the US-Mexico border as a red gash in the wall and surrounded it with large paper flowers representing the state flowers of the four border states.
In recent years, Jimenez Underwood has been creating art that explores themes of cultural identity, border issues, and social justice in California. Her works, such as the "BORDERLINES" series, often involve collaboration with schoolchildren or recently incarcerated women from local communities.
Gilda Posada, an art history PhD candidate, has written about Jimenez Underwood's work, stating that she has impacted generations of artists by advocating for fiber art and her pedagogy.
Jimenez Underwood's journey in art began in her 20s, when she made her first woven artwork in response to a United Farmer Workers (UFW) picket line she saw during a trip to a grocery store. Since then, she has attended school only outside the harvest season, taking classes from October to March, and was the first in her family to graduate from high school.
Through her art, Jimenez Underwood continues to challenge, inspire, and provoke thought about the complexities of the US-Mexico border and the issues that surround it. Her work serves as a testament to the power of art as a tool for social change and as a platform for advocacy.
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