22% of deportations involve parents of U.S. citizens (Immigrant Justice activist, May Day 2014, Los Angeles)

22% of deportations involve parents of U.S. citizens (Immigrant Justice activist, May Day 2014, Los Angeles)

Artist Andrea Bowers (American, born 1965)

Date2014

MediumColored pencil on paper

DimensionsSheet: 30 × 22 1/2 inches (76.2 × 57.2 cm);
Frame: 32 × 24 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches (81.3 × 61.9 × 4.1 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineAcquired through the Beth Treadway, Class of 1970, and Stephen Treadway, Class of 1969, Fund, in honor of Cathy Rosa Klimaszewski’s retirement as the Harriett Ames Charitable Trust Curator of Education

Terms

Drawings
Colored pencil
Paper
American

Object number2018.071

Label CopySince 2007, Bowers has been documenting—with drawings—the work of activists fighting for the right of people to freely migrate in the changing climate of US border policies. This drawing—based on a color photograph that Bowers took herself at a 2014 protest march in Los Angeles—shows a protester wearing a cardboard sign in the shape of a butterfly. The image of a butterfly emerged in activist communities around 2012 as a simple reminder that the movement across borders has always been a natural process. Bowers uses this image to celebrate the beauty of the movement of people and the power of civic engagement to raise consciousness and effect change. Commenting on her choice of drawing over photography, Bowers has noted: “I have this belief that there’s a huge difference between a photograph and a drawing. People just read them differently. I think I seduce people into the imagery with the craft of the drawing. . . . Drawing is populist in a way that almost everybody identifies with it, particularly when it is labor-intensive and skillful.” ("how the light gets in", curated by Andrea Inselmann and presented at the Johnson Museum September 7-December 8, 2019)

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