AIR Introduction: Citlali Fabián

Hello everyone! I’m so glad to introduce myself to the Flower City Arts Center community. My name is Citlali Fabian and I will be a Photography Resident starting next week! I’m originally from Oaxaca, Mexico but I came to Rochester two years ago to participate in the program of Photographic Preservation and Collections Management at the George Eastman Museum. Since then I have been learning and evolving my way of producing images. One of the most interesting changes that happened to myself was to discover how I started to appreciate my own culture in different ways. Being emerged in another culture let me see how ordinary things can be extraordinary, and it also strengthened my sense to belong somewhere else.

So as an artist I have been exploring different perspectives to understand and photograph the concept of identity and belonging. In my work Mestiza, I photographed woman in Mexico looking for their understanding around our condition as “half blood”, exploring connections between cultural statements and personal beliefs, resulting in a deeper visualization of their own image.

I think in the world we are living in now, we can be at risk when embracing our own identities, as part of any kind of ethnic, religious, social or sexual orientation group. In certain ways, our society encourages division instead of unity: boundaries, walls, classification are all part of it. Being different is turned into something negative and symbols representing unity have become ambivalent. As a foreigner these are crucial elements to understanding the re-composition of identity. With this in mind, I’m developing the project American Flag. I will be sharing with you the development of this work, including my experiences and motivation around it. I hope to have the chance to connect with you and share ideas.

 

 

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