By Susan Jedrzejewski, McColl Center for Visual Art

As one of McColl Center for Visual Art’s Knight Artists-in-Residence, Margarita Cabrera is currently conducting her community outreach project entitled Space In Between. In conjunction with FLORESCA, a corporation founded by the artist in 2010, she has invited members of the Charlotte-based immigrant community to collaborate in a sewing and embroidery workshop. The title derives from the term “neplanta,” which, in the Nahuatl Aztec language, connotes the “space in the middle.” It refers to “marginalized cultures and their resistance strategies of survival;” thus serving as a key concept in interpreting the work produced in the workshop.

In Space In Between, Cabrera works with a group of local immigrants to create sculptural replicas of desert plants indigenous to the most frequently traveled route of immigration into the United States. Because many of these journeys are made by foot, the relationship between man and the natural environment becomes particularly significant in the greater scope of the work. Using border control uniforms to construct the plant leaves, the sculptures render the officers as important fixtures in the American landscape while simultaneously questioning their authority. Employing the traditional mural techniques of Tenango de Doria in Hidalgo, Mexico, each leaf is embroidered with colorful imagery, such as vegetation, religious icons and even some personal symbols. Whether interpreted individually or as a group, the narratives evoke the immigrant’s transformative experience. The work produced becomes a hybridized depiction of fine art, as the method of craft is elevated to high art status.

The project aims to build cultural bridges through working with immigrants on American soil while using a craft informed by Mexican tradition. Cabrera hopes that by bringing them into cultural conversation, she may impart an understanding about these social issues.