Hey Gringo (2022)
Hey Gringo -
Papel picado (cut plastic sheeting and string) installation, 30 ft length x 1.5 feet width, 100 pieces, 2022
During her time in Oaxaca Talena Sanders was intrigued by the graffiti directed towards tourists, some of it occupying the same rhetoric as right wing politics from the United States: "hey gringo go back to your land". Ironically, that land is not the gringo's land.
A message that particularly struck her wasn't occupying that rhetoric but simply sending a message: "hey gringo they are killing us women". Talena chose to reproduce that message in papel picado, typical decorations that folklorize a space for the tourist's gaze.
Graffiti that is political, critical, and directed towards foreigners gets painted over by the city almost every Sunday. The decorative aspect of Talena's piece camouflages the message in a tourist-friendly language of representation. Instead of talking to "the other" Talena is talking to herself. - Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas, curator, La Clinica
This project was made in collaboration with La Clinica gallery during a residency in 2022, and will be installed in the public park Jardín Carbajal across from the gallery beginning September 2022. The message on the 100 pieces of papel picado reads “Hey gringo, they are killing us women” based on English language graffiti seen in the center of Oaxaca.
