Art Forward, a new art club formed in the fall of 2020 to create a more inclusive and artistically empowered community, has worked with UA organizations to put together a participatory art project sponsored and organized by the Undocumented Migration Project. In addition, Art Forward members have curated an exhibition to accompany the project. Both will be on display in Maxwell Hall on UA campus from September 15 through October 15, 2021.
UPDATE! The Undocumented Migration Project’s accompanying documentary film Border South will be screened at the Intercultural Diversity Center in the Ferguson Center from 4:30-6:00 p.m., Monday, September 13. Following the screening, the audience is invited to go to Maxwell Hall for the exhibition opening from 6:15-8 p.m. The La Mexicana food truck will be serving free food for reception attendees. Art Forward organizers ask that those planning to attend the reception RSVP here so they will have an accurate headcount for food.
The art project Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) is made up of more than 3,200 handwritten toe tags representing migrants who died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2019. Directed by anthropologist Jason De León, the construction of this iteration of HT94 on UA campus is made possible by teams of local volunteers who participate in tag-filling workshops where they write the details of the dead and then place the tags on a map in the exact location where each individual’s remains were found. Some tags also contain QR codes that link to content related to migrant stories and visuals connected to immigration, including a virtual exhibition that can be accessed via cellphone.
Art Forward president Ivy Borden said that the accompanying art exhibition will include works by artists Irasema Quezada Hammock, Rebecca Delgado, Aldo Muzzarelli and elindiocopyright1985, selected from a call for entries put out by Art Forward in June. Borden said that the two projects depicting the collective and personal effects on humanity shown together in Maxwell Hall should have a substantive impact on the viewer. “The aim of this exhibition is to encourage reflection and discussion of the human aspect of immigration policy and experience.”
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.