We Can Manifest a World Beyond Borders

Inscriptions

Signed, lower right edge, in image: KARLITA! 20 / 20; inscribed, in image, above center: WE CAN MANIFEST [underlined] / A WORLD / BEYOND / BORDERS

Label

Podemos manifestar un mundo más alláde las fronteras imagina a un mundo donde no existen fronteras: dos personas sostienen una cadena rota que simboliza la destrucción de las fronteras y reconoce el poder de la acción colectiva para desmantelarlas. Esta pieza creada porKarla Rosas, quien es indocumentade y queer, reconoce la autodeterminación, la imaginación y la fuerza colectiva de los grupos marginados para trascender las fronteras. Rosas utiliza la mariposa monarca, un símbolo de los derechos de los inmigrantes y el movimiento libre, para recordarnos que las fronteras son edificios hechos por el hombre y diseñados para gobernar, disciplinar, vigilar, detener y oprimir a las personas racializadas. Con esta pieza, Rosas nos invita a reflexionar sobre el sistema interestatal del imperialismo fronterizo, un proceso contemporáneo que se construye encima de los legados de colonialismo, despojo, desplazamiento, homofobia, racismo y desigualdad estructural. Rosas nos invita a todes a soñar con un mundo sin fronteras, ¿cómo sería un mundo sin fronteras?

We Can Manifest a World Beyond Borders imagines a world in which borders do not exist: two people hold a broken chain, alluding to the destruction of borders and the power of collective action to dismantle them. This piece, by undocumented queer artist Karla Rosas, centers the agency, imagination, and collective strength of marginalized groups to transcend borders. Rosas utilizes the monarch butterfly—a symbol for immigrant rights and free movement—to remind us that borders are manmade edifices designed to govern, discipline, surveil, detain, and oppress racialized persons. With this piece, Rosas asks us to reflect on the inter-state system of border imperialism, a contemporary process that builds on legacies of colonialism, dispossession, displacement, homophobia, racism, and structural inequality. Rosas invites us all to dream: what might a world without borders look like?

—Beatriz Yanes Martinez, Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow

From the 2022 exhibition Bolas de Fuego: Culture and Conflict in Central America, curated by Jorge E. Cuéllar, Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies

Course History

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

Latino Studies 44.01, Anthropology 12.19, Sociology 43.01, Latino Roots & Transitions, Christina Gomez, Summer 2024

Exhibition History

Bolas de Fuego: Culture and Conflict in Central America, Teaching exhibition, Guest curator Jorge E. Cuellar, Class of 1967 Gallery and the LeWitt Wall, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 28-September 25, 2022.

Provenance

Maricosas: Art + Illustration by Karla Rosas; sold to present collection, 2022.

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Subjects