Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
i can’t live without you: (un)documented files and truths is a series of artworks that recontextualize the act of filling out forms to dignify the lives of immigrants whose identities are controlled and reduced by legal status. Spanning thirteen years as an (un)documented immigrant in the United States, this work exposes the crude and emotionally consuming reality of institutional paperwork. Terms like “alien” are normalized within bureaucratic systems, shaping how immigrants are perceived and how we are made to perceive ourselves. Through repetitive paperwork and invasive questioning required simply to exist, institutions reduce complex lives to checkboxes. Each piece is created using cyanotype, a photographic process that produces Prussian blue images through UV exposure. The work centers forced resilience, self-advocacy, and solidarity as sustaining forces. It offers a way to reimagine documentation not as a tool of control, but as a site of agency, memory, and belonging.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Renata Gabriela is an interdisciplinary artist investigating the boundaries of visual narrative. Through the use of alternative photographic methods, she creates immersive works that transform storytelling into a tangible tool for self-discovery and collective growth. Renata’s work considers the loopholes people have to find within existing systems of oppression in order to live. Born in México City, she is the recipient of the Mary E. Krebs Smyth Scholarship for Art Educators at Northeastern Illinois University, which allows her to advance her education despite the limitations placed on immigrant communities. Her artistic practice and creativity informs the curriculum she develops for her students. Renata believes that education is the key to liberating ourselves from the phantoms colonialism left behind.
© Renata Gabriela