Through Tender Paintings and Carvings, Hilda Palafox Revels in Care and Communion

"In her manifesto, Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldúa presents what she calls a new mestiza consciousness, which advocates for ambiguity and moves "toward a more whole perspective, one that includes rather than excludes." Groundbreaking when it was published in 1987, this theory pushed queer, feminist, and cultural scholars to consider how identity is both fluid and informed by several overlapping factors. It also helped to lay the groundwork for branches of study like ecofeminism,"

"Mexican artist Hilda Palafox draws on these lines of inquiry in her exhibition De Tierra y Susurros, or Of Soil and Whispers. Comprised of oil paintings on linen and carved cantera reliefs, this body of work considers a spiritual connection between women and nature and the possibilities for attuning ourselves to our environment once again. "For me, the point where two lines meet lies precisely there: in the conscious decision to pause, to listen, and to pay closer attention," the artist says in a statement."

"Often capturing a moment of respite, several of Palafox's paintings depict tender acts of care. "Origen," for example, features two topless figures in the fetal position, cradling a sapling, while "Presagio" is similarly delicate as small yellow butterflies emerge between two women. One of the fluttering insects even lands on a fraying chain-link fence in the foreground, a metaphor for the rigid systems, both internal and external, that Anzaldúa opposed."

Rigidity leads to demise and a mestiza consciousness champions ambiguity and inclusion. Identity is portrayed as fluid and shaped by overlapping cultural, gender, and queer factors, influencing scholarship and giving rise to ecofeminist links between the subjugation of women and nature. Mexican artist Hilda Palafox channels these ideas in De Tierra y Susurros through oil paintings on linen and carved cantera reliefs that explore spiritual bonds between women and the environment. Paintings capture moments of respite and care using earth tones, expansive landscapes, and metaphors—such as butterflies and a fraying chain-link fence—to critique rigid internal and external systems.

Read at Colossal