Searching for Queertopia: art exhibit

Artwork by Alexander Hernandez & Neil Rivas
Show Dates: May 30 - June 30th

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About:
Searching for Queertopia is an collaborative exhibition that revisits the experiences of Alexander Hernandez’s participation and Neil Rivas’ visual documentation of what is called, the Vela de ‘Las Intrépidas,’ a 3-day event held annually in the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, México, in honor of its Muxe community. Muxe, a Zapotec term for what is commonly known in the English-speaking world as Queer, has existed while evolving since Pre-Columbian times primarily in the southernmost regions of what is now known as Mexico. Hernandez, invested in reclaiming a past that been lost, was interested in what contemporary iterations of Muxe identity look like and how they function in relation to his queer and cultural identities. The series of processions and the preparations for them mark the commencement to a quest that Hernandez calls, his search for a Queertopia. Rivas, a friend and ally who accompanied him throughout the journey, served as its multimedia documentarian. The show brings together Hernandez’s garments, textile works, and object-based pieces that are resulting works of cross-hybridization, and Rivas’ visual remnants of this rite of passage embarked on by Hernandez.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Alex Hernandez will also be teaching a pair of free sewing workshops. Participants will learn how to make a 'huipil,' a traditional garment worn by indigenous people in Mexico and Central America.

Workshop Dates: Sat. June 9 & 16, 2:00PM - 4:00PM