Tres Fronteras (Three Borders)
Kiara Aileen Machado, Guatemalan / Salvadoran (born in the United States), born 1993
2019
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 54 × 36 in. (137.2 × 91.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Robert J. Strasenburgh II 1942 Fund
© Kiara Aileen Machado
2023.27
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
Not on view
Label
Tres Fronteras presents stories of migration from Machado’s family after they were displaced at the onset of the Salvadoran Civil War. The artist uses saturated colors, strong textures, and collage-like painting to communicate the complex histories of displacement and resettlement in a new country. Almost indiscernible to the viewer, the work’s references to her family’s home include the obscured text of Lago de Guija—the place her father is from. A hidden “entrada” sign implies a welcoming space, yet the silhouette of the leaves that cover it points to the much grimmer reality faced by migrants who struggle to find community and face hostile immigration laws and policies in the United States. Aptly titled Tres Fronteras, the work gestures to the multiple borders that migrants encounter in their passage north.
From the 2024 exhibition [Un]Mapping: Decolonial Cartographies of Place, curated by Beatriz Yanes Martinez, Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow, Curatorial and Exhibitions
Course History
Latin American and Caribbean Studies 8.01 – Politics and Culture in Transnational America, Jorge Cuellar, Fall 2023
Art History 40.03, Latin American and Caribbean Studies 20.11, Art and Politics in Latin America, Mary Coffey - OPEN HOURS, Fall 2023
Art History 40.03, Latin American and Caribbean Studies 20.11, Art and Politics in Latin America, Mary Coffey - OPEN HOURS, Fall 2023
Spanish 3.01, Spanish III, Doug Moody, Fall 2023
Art History 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2024
Latino Studies 44.01, Anthropology 12.19, Sociology 43.01, Latino Roots and Transitions, Marcela Di Blasi, Winter 2024
Latino Studies 44.01, Anthropology 12.19, Sociology 43.01, Latino Roots and Transitions, Marcela Di Blasi, Winter 2024
Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Charis Boke, Summer 2024
Exhibition History
[Un]Mapping: Decolonial Cartographies of Place, Harteveldt Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 8 -November 3, 2024.
Provenance
The artist, Kiara Aileen Machado, San Gabriel Valley, California; sold to present collection, 2023.
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