DIANA CALDERON: WE THE PEOPLE
Join our Free Live Stream on election night, nov. 3, from 7-9pm for an unconventional election night dinner with Diana Calderon. This will be a performative art intervention and a live untraditional "election party".
Become part of a moment of sharing space and creative energy with strangers and friends online. This is meant to be a platform where we can feel connected to each other through Facebook, and be free to be ourselves as if we were in the comfort of our own home, or a friend’s home.
This will be a performative "live dinner party". A dirty cloth that was previously used as tablecloth and napkin at Calderon's home during a social distance birthday gathering and which bares the traces of where eight friends shared a meal to celebrate a birthday will be repurposed for an evening of free expression. We encourage you to get out your own materials for art, games, and fun exchanges that will bare the traces of friendship on this historical evening.
Before this cloth was used for a the shared meal in the gallery, it started out with a pencil line drawing of the Statue of Liberty waist up. With the drawing, Calderon wanted to focus on the halo of The Statue of Liberty, or seven rays that emphasize the seven nations and celebrate unity as an immigrant nation, on native land. We encourage you to focus on symbols of hope, courage and strength this election eve.
With all of the above in mind, we present for one night only, the performance of "We the People" which celebrates those values and much more in a closed setting with participants selected by the artist. Join Diana Calderon and friends for a live stream, and set up your owndinner table, or just take a break from the election results and celebrate our unity and sense of mutual belonging together online rather than through the polarized partisanship that is all around us.
Bio: Diana Calderon, born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1981, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Phoenix, AZ. Raised in the borderlands of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Calderón earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University, 2008. She also studied bookmaking & printmaking in Cortona, Italy with the University of Georgia's Study Abroad Program & Printmaking at the University of Dallas.
Calderón exhibits artwork nationally and internationally. Calderón investigates her ancestral roots and personal migrant journey, referencing archaeological and architectural patterns and texture while using bi-national materials to create. Her artwork is a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques such as relief printmaking, bookmaking, sculptural installation, public and performance art.
In 2018, a partnership between CALA Alliance, ASU Art Museum & PAOS Gdl allowed Calderón to live, create and exhibit her artwork in the MuseoTaller José Clemente Orozco, former home and studio of the famous Mexican muralist.