Women Immigration, Human Rights & The Indigenous Fight to Save the Earth
JANUARY 25TH - MARCH 1ST, MONDAY-FRIDAY FROM 12-4PM
Alexandra McNichols-Torroledo, is a Colombian-born photographer whose artwork centers on issues of human rights, immigration, and the fight of Indigenous communities to protect sacred plants, water, and rainforests from climate change. Her creative process involves communal practices, and she bridges the fields of artistic and documentary photography. Alexandra produces photographs that appear to be antiques and are printed on handmade paper done with coca leaf fiber and recycled paper, canvas and on stones. This exhibition is made up of selections from four of her projects.
STONE FACES: Seven portraits of women printed on stone as the antique Maya’s stelae, who migrated to America are representing immigrants that have escaped political or religious repression, gender violence, racism, apartheid, antisemitism, fascism, and war. They symbolize current issues in Ukraine, Iran, Korea, South Africa, Colombia, and the past horrors of the Holocaust in World War II committed by the Nazis.
ESX /COCA seeks to deconstruct colonial and postcolonial visual narratives of the coca plant through the images of the Wasak Kwewesx School in the Colombian Andes. There, children are educated in the ancient coca rites by a traditional doctor to become traditional doctors, midwives, or leaders. The photos were printed on handmade paper made with coca leaves in collaboration with the Nasa people and several artists.
Water Protectors / Mní Nakíčižiŋpi: In 2017, the Lakota opposed the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. The Lakota called themselves the “Water Protectors” of Lake Oahe, which supplies the Missouri River. The photographs of this body or artwork were printed on canvas to represent their traditional houses and the resistance of the Lakota to this day.
The Fight for the Amazon/ Tandamorys Kyrraú mamãdhora: Alexandra traveled to Brazil to photograph the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest that is changing the climate of the Earth. She worked in collaboration with the Mura Indigenous people, an ancestral Indigenous community that has resisted deforestation and exploitation of timber, cattle, and soy from colonial times to the present in order to save the rainforest.
The exhibit will be available to view Monday through Friday from 12-4pm in the Cook Center's Process Gallery.