Family Portrait [Between Walls]
(Retrato de Familia [Entre Paredes])

Yehimi Cambrón is a DACAmented artist and activist based in Atlanta and born in San Antonio Villalongín, Michoacán, México. She became undocumented at seven years old when she immigrated to Georgia, where she grew up on Buford Hwy—the multicultural heart of Atlanta.

Cambrón’s work centers immigrants and predominantly reflects the experiences of Undocumented Americans. Her landmark murals in Atlanta historically assert the presence and humanity of immigrants, depict the intersectionality and complexity of their stories, and challenge the white male-centered history that dictates who is worthy of a public, monumental celebration.

ABOUT THE PIECE

Family Portrait [Between Walls] is the third iteration of my 2019 Family Portrait series, initially exhibited at the High Museum of Art for Of Origins and Belonging, Drawn from Atlanta, curated by Michael Rooks. This installation is the first time this intimate portrait series of my mixed-status immigrant family is on view in a public setting, confined between walls but illuminated in the darkness nonetheless.

Family Portrait [Between Walls] is exhibited as a suspended silk fabric installation, amplifying each portrait's fragility and monumentality. It encourages a more participatory role in viewing and engaging with the series than the original pieces, which were printed on rice paper, mounted on heavy birch panels, and sealed with beeswax.

There's a harrowing weight to the circumstances surrounding undocumented people and their families that can be easily missed by those who don't face the fragility of this precarious status. In Family Portrait [Between Walls], these dense topics are suspended by the alleviating material silk fabric that captures the complex ways in which our lives exist—sometimes holding on by a thread.

The ethereality of the hanging portraits' motion lures viewers into conversation with each individual. As a grouping, Family Portrait [Revisited] invites them to stand in my family's embrace, where they can begin exploring a more layered portrait of Undocumented Americans.

These portraits place family and human beings front and center; the dark contour lines of each face supersede the embedded fragments of documents and even the immigration stories that engulf our lives. Only a closer examination reveals carefully selected portions of ghost-like layers of documents within our portraits, exposing the privileges and limitations of immigration status and citizenship.

Whether "fully" undocumented, DACA recipients, or U.S. citizens, each individual's documents—or lack thereof—are permanent fixtures in our daily lives. Our immigration status determines which documents we are allowed to have, and those documents, in turn, determine our access to opportunities. Prevalent phrases such as "not valid for re-entry to the U.S.," "not evidence of U.S. Citizenship," "limited-term," "card expires," and "alien" are a stark contrast to the language within my little sister's U.S. Passport. The only U.S. citizen in the family, her portrait instead includes "hereby requests... to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance..." and ironically, this quote praising immigrants: "It is immigrants who brought to this land the skills of their hands and brains to make it a beacon of opportunity and hope for all men."

SOBRE LA PIEZA

Retrato de familia [Entre paredes] es la tercera versión de mi serie Retratos de familia del 2019, inicialmente exhibido en el High Museum of Art para of Origins and Belonging, Dibujado de Atlanta, comisariada por Michael Rooks. Esta instalación es la primera vez que esta serie de retratos íntimos de mi familia de inmigrantes de estatus mixto está a la vista en un entorno público, confinada entre paredes pero sin embargo iluminada en la oscuridad.

Retrato de familia [Entre paredes] se exhibe como una instalación suspendida de tela de seda, amplificando La fragilidad y monumentalidad de cada retrato. Fomenta un papel más participativo en la visualización y comprometedor comparado a las piezas originales, que fueron impresas en papel de arroz, montadas sobre pesados​​paneles de abedul y sellados con cera de abeja.

Hay un peso desgarrador en las circunstancias que rodean a las personas indocumentadas y sus familias que fácilmente pueden pasar desapercibidas para aquellos que no enfrentan la fragilidad de esta situación precaria.

En Retrato de familia [Entre paredes], estos temas densos están suspendidos por el tejido de seda que captura las formas complejas en las que existen nuestras vidas -a veces aferrándose de un hilo.