Day 216: M. Jenea Sanchez

My artistic endeavors reside in this threshold of liminality.  My work has an inherent attribute of perceiving the world from a threshold, a physiological and psychological response to the mutation of cultural ideologies, engendered by my lifetime's interaction with the US Mexico border.  As our society is aware of the political negotiations occurring on both sides of the US Mexico border fence, it is my interest to further expose the beauty of duality experienced by border citizens.

As a person I am aware of my cultural categorization, neither as native Mexicana nor Americana.  As an artist, I strive to utilize this nomadic sensibility, by inserting myself between, among, and outside of the status quo of American and Mexican culture.  As the sociopolitical climate of the border region remains controversial, I continue the conversation of permeability and of how the perception of the actual line of the border can be changed.  It is important to address that I believe borders are essential.  Borders in nature and the physical body (skin, blood), exemplify the importance of the marginalized bodies, as well as the importance of reciprocity between two entities.  Barriers are what drive my artwork to respond to the dangers they implicate, for the peoples and environments involved, and bring forward explorations of the natural ways in which borders do and most importantly, could exist.

Through drawing, video, installation, performance and photography I speak and illustrate contemporary life in the Southwest with a feminist perspective atop a fence that bisects one culture.

BIO

M. Jenea Sanchez was born in Douglas, AZ in 1985.  After receiving her MFA from Arizona State University in 2011, she returned to Douglas to pursuer her career in art and teaching. She is currently a faculty member at Cochise College in the Digital Media Arts Program. Jenea and her husband, Robert Uribe head the organization, Border Arts Corridor (BAC), a platform for creative expression and providing the borderlands community an  immersive, arts district through bi-national artwalks, workshops, performances, public dialogues and artist residencies.  
mjeneasanchez.com

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