Indocumentado Analysis

Indocumentado is an art piece by Bianca Peña that is currently part of the Undergraduate exhibition at Herron School of Art and Design. At a first glance it looks like a regular collage with some text that gives definition to the double faces. But upon closer look at the piece this isn’t just a regular collage, but a collage that promotes multiculturalism and has the aesthetic feel that Barbara Kruger also has in her work. Bianca, similarly to Kruger, gets very political in the works of Indocumentado making multiple statements on the issue of xenophobia and immigration. Indocumentado talks about specifically about the undocumented latinx community and how they face the struggle of wanting documents and how hard it is to obtain them in America.
This piece is a narrative of what it is like to be undocumented, that those who don’t have the paperwork start ripping apart their identity because they don’t deem worthy in the American eyes. This is hard for anyone who is undocumented because you have the irrational fear of Americans scared that you aren’t legal but then you have your family consoling you that you are still human, it’s hard to start deciphering what is truth and what is fantasy. Indocumentado at its core has the strong elements of essentialism, and shows the bias that the American people have not only to legal latinx but as well as undocumented latinx. Bianca through her collage is making the statement that the latinx community is damned if they are legal and damned if they are illegal because through the American eyes that are blinded by patriotism, anyone with brown skin is deemed lesser due to Eurocentric ideals that have been ingrained into the American lifestyle.
This piece looks heavily influenced by Kruger’s work, the strong font that paves it’s way through the photo, to the elements of using white text over black and red stripes. Though Bianca doesn’t appropriate the images like Kruger does, it can be seen that Bianca is tastefully appropriating text and other subtle designs that are throughout the piece giving the same style that pop art does. Pop art gives off the feeling of commodity, something Kruger is a strong proponent of, through the piece of Indocumentado there is a strong sense of commodity and advertising elements throughout the piece. The tears give the sense that this was once an advertisement seen on the streets but as time went on and the layers came off we see the true intention of why the art was made. By combining elements of multiculturalism, collage, advertising and conceptuality Bianca has successfully made a piece that has the same intentions Barbara Kruger had when she made her political driven
pieces.