The Contemporary Project – Las Hermanas Iglesias
Saturday, December 17, 2022 - Sunday, July 9, 2023
Sisters Lisa and Janelle Iglesias have collaborated artistically as Las Hermanas Iglesias since 2005, alongside their individual studio practices. Working on opposite coasts, the artists produce playful work in a variety of mediums, engaging issues such as community, feminism, and cultural hybridity. Las Hermanas’ artworks draw on their identities as the children of Dominican and Norwegian immigrants and highlight relationships between family members as well as individuals in society, tying the personal to larger cultural systems and promoting cooperation and collectivity.
Their Contemporary Project debuts work that draws on the sisters’ own navigations of fertility, pregnancy, loss, and birth. Both gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic when parenting-related concerns, including essential labor, healthcare access, childcare costs, paid leave, and reproductive justice, came to the fore. The artists’ understanding of caregiving as part of a complex network of social issues shapes the themes and forms of their project. Through a constellation of textile, collage, and sculpture, Las Hermanas Iglesias hold space for the complexity and nuance that inform a wide range of reproductive and caregiving experiences.
About the Artists
Las Hermanas Iglesias have been featured in solo and two-party exhibitions at Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; the National Nordic Museum, Seattle, WA; Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA; Ortega y Gasset, New York, NY; and Present Company, Brooklyn, NY, among others, and in group exhibitions at the Queens Museum, Queens, NY; New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM; the BRIC Biennial, Brooklyn, NY; Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Abrons Art Center, New York, NY; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, and elsewhere. Las Hermanas Iglesias have been supported by residencies including the LMCC Paris Residency, Paris, France; New Roots Foundation, Antigua, Guatemala; Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY; and StoneLeaf Artist Residency, Kingston, NY; and by grants from the Queens Council for the Arts and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.
Lisa Iglesias (born 1979, Queens, NY) holds an MFA from the University of Florida and is currently an Associate Professor at Mount Holyoke College. Janelle Iglesias (born 1980, Queens, NY) received her MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego.
Gallery TextTheir Contemporary Project debuts work that draws on the sisters’ own navigations of fertility, pregnancy, loss, and birth. Both gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic when parenting-related concerns, including essential labor, healthcare access, childcare costs, paid leave, and reproductive justice, came to the fore. The artists’ understanding of caregiving as part of a complex network of social issues shapes the themes and forms of their project. Through a constellation of textile, collage, and sculpture, Las Hermanas Iglesias hold space for the complexity and nuance that inform a wide range of reproductive and caregiving experiences.
About the Artists
Las Hermanas Iglesias have been featured in solo and two-party exhibitions at Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT; the National Nordic Museum, Seattle, WA; Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA; Ortega y Gasset, New York, NY; and Present Company, Brooklyn, NY, among others, and in group exhibitions at the Queens Museum, Queens, NY; New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM; the BRIC Biennial, Brooklyn, NY; Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Abrons Art Center, New York, NY; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, and elsewhere. Las Hermanas Iglesias have been supported by residencies including the LMCC Paris Residency, Paris, France; New Roots Foundation, Antigua, Guatemala; Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY; and StoneLeaf Artist Residency, Kingston, NY; and by grants from the Queens Council for the Arts and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.
Lisa Iglesias (born 1979, Queens, NY) holds an MFA from the University of Florida and is currently an Associate Professor at Mount Holyoke College. Janelle Iglesias (born 1980, Queens, NY) received her MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego.
Sisters Lisa and Janelle Iglesias have collaborated artistically as Las Hermanas Iglesias since 2005, alongside their individual studio practices. Working on opposite coasts, the artists produce playful work in a variety of mediums, engaging issues such as community, feminism, and cultural hybridity. Las Hermanas’ artworks draw on their identities as the children of Dominican and Norwegian immigrants and highlight relationships between family members as well as individuals in society, tying the personal to larger cultural systems and promoting cooperation and collectivity.
Their Contemporary Project debuts work that draws on the sisters’ own navigations of fertility, pregnancy, loss, and birth. Both gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic, when parenting-related concerns, including essential labor, healthcare access, childcare costs, paid leave, and reproductive justice, came to the fore. The artists’ understanding of caregiving as part of a complex network of social issues shapes the themes and forms of their project. They were also inspired by the biological phenomenon of microchimerism, the flow and recombination of cell populations between gestational parents, children, and siblings. The term derives from the mythological chimera, a hybrid, fire-breathing female monster with the body parts of a lion, goat, and serpent.
These themes of interconnection appear most clearly in the hands and weaving patterns that recur throughout the installation. Casts of the artists’ hands and those of their mother, Bodhild, and Lisa’s son, Bowery, offer gestures of comfort, support, and resistance, and hold symbolic objects including shells and plants. The crisscrossing warp and weft of textiles implies the strengthening of single threads through interlacing and acts as a metaphor for networks of mutual support. Likewise, the use of wordplay and collage suggests the power of multiple meanings and recontextualization, echoing the artists’ resistance to a singular narrative.
Instead, Las Hermanas Iglesias hold space for the complexity and nuance that inform a wide range of reproductive and caregiving experiences.
Las hermanas Lisa y Janelle Iglesias han colaborado artísticamente desde 2005 como Las hermanas Iglesias, simultáneamente a sus prácticas de estudio individuales. Trabajando en costas opuestas, las artistas producen obras lúdicas en una variedad de medios, ocupándose de asuntos como la comunidad, el feminismo y la hibridación cultural. Las obras de Las hermanas echan mano de su identidad como hijas de una pareja de inmigrantes de República Dominicana y Noruega y resaltan las relaciones entre los miembros de la familia y los individuos que componen la sociedad, vinculando lo personal a sistemas culturales más amplios y fomentando la cooperación y la colectividad.
En su Contemporary Project (Proyecto contemporáneo), Las hermanas Iglesias estrenan obras que se centran en sus propias navegaciones sobre la fertilidad, el embarazo, la pérdida y el nacimiento. Ambas dieron a luz durante la pandemia del COVID-19, cuando las preocupaciones relacionadas con la crianza de los hijos, como el trabajo esencial, el acceso a la atención médica, los costos del cuidado de los niños, las licencias remuneradas y la justicia reproductiva, pasaron a primer plano. La comprensión de las artistas del cuidado de personas como parte de una compleja red de problemas sociales moldea los temas y la forma de su proyecto. Las hermanas también se inspiraron en el fenómeno biológico del “microquimerismo”, el flujo y la recombinación de poblaciones celulares entre padres, hijos y hermanos gestacionales. El término se deriva de la quimera, un monstruo femenino mitológico híbrido que lanzaba fuego por la boca y cuyo cuerpo estaba conformando por partes de los cuerpos de un león, una cabra y una serpiente.
Estos temas de interconexión aparecen más claramente en las manos y en los patrones de tejido que se repiten en toda la instalación. Los moldes de las manos de las artistas, las de su madre, Bodhild, y las del hijo de Lisa, Bowery, ofrecen gestos de consuelo, apoyo y resistencia, y sostienen objetos simbólicos como conchas y plantas. El entrecruzamiento de la urdimbre y la trama de los tejidos insinúan el refuerzo de los hilos individuales mediante el entrelazamiento y sirve como metáfora de las redes de apoyo mutuo. Asimismo, el uso del collage y los juegos de palabras sugiere el poder de significados múltiples y la recontextualización, haciendo eco de la resistencia de las artistas a una narrativa singular. En vez de ello, Las hermanas Iglesias guardan espacio para la complejidad y los matices que dan cuenta de una amplia gama de experiencias reproductivas y de cuidado de personas.