Final project

My final project is about my life in Colombia with my mom and sister and my life here in the U.S which is what makes my identity today. My project was inspired by Sophie Calle’s exposition “The Birthday Celebration” in which she collected the presents that people gave to her in her birthday parties. In this case, I decided to collect not the presents but the words that I think make my identity. I put the words and sentences in and out of a box that represents the “bubble” in which I have lived.
Outside the box: It represents what I consider the “bad” part of my life
Top: I wrote the words that describe me as a person, but that I don’t actually like and that I would like to change.

Bottom: I wrote the sentences that I often utilize to describe me and that I use every time I do something. 

Front: I wrote words that I found people use a lot in the Latin community in this country and that I consider that are not appropriate and that I actually hate. 

Back: In this side, I wrote words that describe what I found when I left my country and that I noticed that are so prevalent in society. 

Inside of the box:  The inside of the box represents my mom and my sister. 

Inside the box, I have three pictures, one with my mom, one with my dogs, and one with my sister. Also, I have the words that they tell me all the time and that keeps me motivated when I want to give up. 

Also, on one side, I decided to write things that my mom always tell me when I go out and that is used normally in society. I think this is important because it represents the machista society in which women are educated to not “provoke” and to not let men do things to us, instead of teaching men to respect women. 

This project is different from my first self-portrait because the first one represented how the ideas of this country are trying to consume me, while this project represents who I am actually am and the things that make my identity. 

My first idea about this project was to represent women that are involved in really bad relationships, but it did not represent me per se, so I changed to my “bubble.”