Laidy Saenz

Entangled Worlds

I am inspired by work created by artists who travel, either within or between countries. While migration refers to movements between two cultures, Entangled Worlds, demonstrates the capacity of migrant artists to transform their surroundings and themselves when moving between two points in space. There is an interaction between migrant artists and their new contexts, which can result in hybrid identities that are complex and multilayered. Often, the experience of encountering a new environment can be one of wonder and disorientation. When migrant artists adjust to new environments, they are experiencing the space between cultures, with elements of each place mixing, resulting in a third space.

Entangled Worlds shows the blending of materials that are often not found together, such as mirrored plexi and textiles that contain pre-Columbian cultures articulated in designs that have been laser cut. This installation resonates with Gloria Anzaldua's approach to borderlands in Borderlands/La Frontera. In borderland theory, Anzaldua argues, "Living in the borderlands creates a third space between cultures and social systems. The word 'borderlands' denotes that space in which antithetical elements mix, neither to obliterate each other, not to be subsumed by a larger whole, but rather, to combine in unique and unexpected ways."