Camila Labarca Linaweaver
My printmaking work depicts themes of immigrant displacement through representations of the landscape. Using my experience as an immigrant, I create poetic works that question the delineation of land and the physical and psychological effects that manifest when crossing borders. My approach rejects propaganda based narratives and employs nuanced aesthetic means that consider the landscape as a metaphor for addressing duality, displacement, alienation, and nostalgia.
Traditionally in the history of landscape art, the “picturesque” refers to an idealized view of the land through the human perspective. Landscape paintings of the west are riddled with ideas of industrialization, westward expansion, and manifest destiny. Today the United States-Mexico borderline is a symbol of nationalism and mistrust. Border theory analyzes these lines as entities in constant negotiation. In my landscapes, fields of open land are scarred by walls, fences, and the imposing presence of the man-made. Through this lens the landscape reemerges, “picturesque”, but scarred, nostalgic, and desolate.
I have focused my printmaking practice on the singular print, particularly explorations using monotypes. I rely on printmaking not for its means of multiplicity, but rather as a tool to extract subtle nuances that occur during the translation from plate to paper. Recently I have delved into time based works and experimentation with stop motion videos. This work challenges the rigidity and fixity of borders to create new spaces of imagination and resistance.
Physical borders and immigrant identity are manifestations that are in constant states of negotiation. The immigrant experience itself exists in a space where identity, nationality, and place blur entirely. My work is a projection of that collective experience.
Images from Left to Right
Non Native Branches, Etching, 6 x 9 inches, 2019
Separate Spaces, Etching, 6 x 9 inches, 2019
Las Possibilities, Monotype, 16 x 20 inches, 2018
Untitled, Monotype, 12 x 15 inches, 2018
Plot, Etching, 6 x 9 inches, 2019
Are We There Yet?, Monotype, Acrylic, and colored pencil on paper, 2020