Aimée García Sin título (Untitled) 2014

Aimeé García’s work is characterized by self-reference, using intimacy to comment on society. She uses the image of her body to address being a woman and an artist. She has used paintings and photographs as creative bases, to which she then adds materials such as hair, string, knives, and metals. In recent years, she has created installation-type objects using materials that allow her to consider everyday life and its contradictions. Handicrafts, in particular anything related to embroidery and knitting, have been present in almost all of her work. García is interested in the impact of information and the influence of the media on society and she addresses this issue from her distinctive female outlook. In Untitled, she embroidered newspapers published in Cuba, “erasing” every letter with string. The discourse, in this case a pro-government newspaper, becomes something abstract. The artist makes the publication look decorative, while trivializing the ideological rhetoric, thereby finally creating a space of mental repose, of tranquility, in light of the overwhelming avalanche of media to which we are subjected on a daily basis. 
Identification
Title
Sin título (Untitled)
Production Date
2014
Object Number
2017.109
Credit Line
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Jorge M. Pérez
Copyright
© Aimée García Marrero
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Physical Qualities
Medium
Collage of newspaper embroidered with thread on cardboard
Dimensions
27 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches
Visual Description
Created by artist Aimée García, Sin titulo (Untitled) is a mixed media artwork measuring around twenty-seven inches tall by a little over seven inches wide. This equals about three feet tall by a little over half a foot wide, giving this artwork a narrow, vertical profile. It is framed in a simple white frame and hung in portrait orientation, meaning its shortest side runs parallel to the floor. Sin titulo (Untitled) consists of an allover composition made up of four to five layers of newspapers that are cropped to fit a frame much smaller than their original size. There is no one particular focal point. Rather, the same amount of surface area of each newspaper sits on top or behind one another. The layered newspapers are typical of newsprint, beige-gray with black text. Each and every line of text has been embroidered with continuous horizontal lines that strike through the letters, rendering them nearly illegible. Although one can barely make out the text that is being concealed in this artwork, it is apparent that the text is in Spanish. Some of the words that can be read are Gramma, assumed to be the title of the newspaper, and ‘órgano oficial del comité central del partido comunista de Cuba’ directly underneath it. The black and white images within the newspapers are embroidered with repeating vertical lines, almost as if putting them behind bars. This artwork uses a limited and subtle color palette.  Garcia uses mostly ochre yellow as well as a bluish gray and a light gray to conceal the newsprint. Although this artwork is made up of very discernable materials, the artist’s manipulation of them results in an abstract pattern of diagonal lines and subtle colors.
Aimée García
Aimée García — b. 1972, Matanzas, Cuba; lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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