Amalia Mesa-Bains’ works in progress

Jackie Lee

Amalia Mesa-Bains is a multi-hyphenate: Activist-artist-author-curator-painter-psychologist-sculptor. I mention to her that ten people in the world can accomplish all those things together, and she is nine of them. She laughs and calls herself “highly over-employed.”

Her current exhibition at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is an artistic safari through disparate cultures, not with paint on canvas but in bags of dirt from historically meaningful locations, together with sticks and stones and bones and much more. Everything in the collection is related to her Latina heritage (“Latina” being her preference over “Hispanic.”) Her pieces are often autobiographical with reference to sacred spaces, the importance of place and memory, and ties to California’s Mexican-American labor community.

The central exhibit, “The Garden of Chihuatlampa,” was created with styrofoam, Spanish moss, marbles, shells, beads and other materials; with a substrate as hard as concrete, it requires several people to lift it. Amelia says it celebrates the women who would only be honored by dying in childbirth, whereas men could die honorably as warriors.

Speaking first about her activism, Amalia says she has been an activist most of her life, but now she’s older, she feels the individual expression of love and care for others on a smaller scale is a counter-balance to the mean-spiritedness now prevailing. She has great hopes for the future. “It’s exciting that the next generation and the one after that will benefit from changes we make now.”

She continues, “As for feminism, the word ‘feminist’ is different in the Latino version. I’m not into bra-burning, but I have respect for people like Gloria Steinem who changed the world. The Mexican family unit is everything, so of course that includes your father. You can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Patriarchy is very prominent in our lives, so you have to make peace within the culture. People negotiate their own interpretation of women’s rights for fair wages, health care, and child care.”

“Whatever it is, I make sure to talk about it and write about it,” Amalia explains. “This show is related to the notion of land and place and the rights of people to those things. Sonoma has an interesting history concerning land grants, and all these years later Mexicans are still working here even though they no longer own the land. But wherever you are, notice – Mexicans are there doing the work.”

Asked about her specific studio process, Amalia says, “In the 1970s I started on very large pieces relating to the Chicano movement. I collaborated with other artists to affirm some of the cultural traditions that had been lost in our generation, including the home altar, the ofrenda, and the yard shrines. I borrowed from all those traditions but in a contemporary form, or what others called ‘installation art.’ I produce toward the goal of a show, but I don’t have a daily practice to speak of, and in a sense my art making is part of my thinking. I write a lot, I like to do research. I wrote a book, Home Grown, Engaged Cultural Criticism. I participate in interviews; I did one with NPR on Frida Kahlo dolls.”

“Frida was such an important part of the Mexican self-determination era. I became associated with her by doing a specific altar for her, so people ask me to speak at Frida Kahlo conferences and exhibitions. I’ve been invited to attend the Victoria & Albert exhibition of her clothing in London.”

Amalia says her method of getting ideas is sometimes a result of her irritation. “Many of my ideas come from what I experience as a person, and that leads to images, then to acquiring the materials needed to make that idea. I respond to things by wanting to make a correction; for example, in 1998 on the 150th anniversary of the Mexican-American land grabs I worked on a piece that was more of a personal interpretation. The picture on the back is of my father who was a ranch-hand. I wanted dirt from all those places! Whatever I need to do I do.” She laughs when recalling the efforts of grubbing around for specimens of dirt in various areas.

“It’s all about land and human geography. I follow different writers and political geographers who talk about how people are displaced and the notion there’s no such thing as innocent spatiality. Paraphrasing LeFevre: no space is empty when we reach it; it has the ghosts of those who came before.”

“Speaking of materials, armoires are an easy way to talk about little houses. I get old ones and recycle them, so they morph into unique pieces each time. I eventually distilled my inventory down to 50 objects to cycle through every installation. I have a large storage facility, and as you can imagine, it’s a really big deal to transport it all in trucks. When it’s delivered, I make the last decisions on how to interpret each exhibition.”

The only permanent piece is at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio, who bridged the gap between Mexico and the United States in her movies; it was actually made for Amalia’s mother.  Amelia says, “My mother and I would stay up late watching TV and Dolores del Rio movies. My mother was just as beautiful, so I added a picture of her. So many viewers say ‘I wonder who that is? Could it be her sister?’ because the likeness is so striking.”

Amalia has a great sense of humor; she laughs when telling the story of people coming up to her at museums wanting to give her all kinds of things to use in her works. One said, “My grandmother left me this necklace, would you like it for your ofrendas?” She accepts their offerings graciously because it means so much to them to pass along pieces of tender emotional value.

Asked what it means to exhibit in Sonoma, Amalia said, “I like going where there are large Latino populations. My things have a certain resonance for them, and I want lots of different kinds of people to feel engaged in my work. All my friends live here, and I visit frequently.” She adds, “It’s always wonderful to work with Linda Keaton and her excellent staff.”

Jackie Lee is an artist living in Sonoma. A supporter of the local visual arts scene in all its forms, her focus is on showcasing individual events and artists as well as those represented by established galleries.