Luis Sahagun
#Frontier

Luis Sahagun was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico in 1982. He is an artist and educator who creates paintings, performances and sculptures confronting the palpable inescapability of race, transforming them into acts of cultural reclamation. Like DNA strings of mestizaje, his practice confronts contradiction indian/conqueror, violence/unity, and ancient/contemporary.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

As an immigrant and former laborer, Luis seeks to reveal the aesthetics of relocation and trans-generational trauma by utilizing building materials such as silicone, lumber, drywall, concrete, and hardware as symbols that represent working class immigrants in this country.

Luis cultivates civic activations for community members, students, and other educators alike. A unique element fueling his social art practice is his experience growing up feeling invisible to society because he was Brown, undocumented, and poor, making him privy to perceptions that most people have not been exposed to. He uses the residue of those traumas to guide the development of meaningful performances, public interventions, discussions and workshops.

ABOUT FRONTIER

I rummage around my personal histories of mythical heritage, spiritual traditions and curanderismo in order to engage in inner work to produce public acts that transform wounds into bridges.

Using Zoom as the primary tool, my FRONTIER team and I created a live performance centered at conjuring an alternative reality as a realm for ephemeral existence. This digital reality or mystical experience pulled our scattered pieces of our identities together to widen our perceptions of what it means to “cross” borders or new frontiers via technology.