Guess who's coming to dinner (or the last supper). Alma Leiva. February 2019. Elsewhere Museum, greensboro, NC. Video documentation of curated dinner in collaboration with Jennida Chase and Hassan Pitts. 9 min 2 secs. Inkjet prints, embroidery, and poetry on museum collection fabric; ongoing collection of stories. 264” x 138” in. Live music performance in collaboration with Joshua Marquez.
Embroidery process
Embroidery process
QR code detail.
Embroidery process
Interactive Greensboro, NC. Map image.2019.
Guess who’s coming to dinner (or the last supper) is a research-based interdisciplinary project that includes interactive, performance, and sensory elements. Inspired by Leiva’s grandmother who worked in a Florida tomato field in the 1980’s, this project is a response to the rising deportations of food industry workers in North Carolina. The project activates Elsewhere’s dining space through a tablecloth, web platform, poetry, a dinner event, and experimental sound performance. Guess Who encourages awareness about migration and labor through personal stories, pertinent statistics, and poetry that humanize this vulnerable demographic.
Through public engagement, Leiva facilitates a platform to bring this difficult conversation to the “table:” A concept she recalls in the title after Stanley Kramer’s 1967 film. Also recalling the table in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting, the project includes a hand-made tablecloth that pairs traditional “women crafts,” or the embroidery using inherited thread, with QR code technology. In the center, a printed, embroidered Greensboro map that resembles a living organism offers interactivity that takes participants to relevant information. On both ends, the tablecloth presents a split North Carolina state map with a poem by Leiva (translated by Walter Krochmal), dedicated to the workers in Spanish and English. In collaboration with local immigrant organization FaithAction, Leiva expands the conversation beyond the event’s inauguration by incorporating an expanding web platform that continuously features regional migrant workers’ personal stories.
In order to encourage engagement and critical thought, the artist served dishes during her opening exhibition using locally grown produce in collaboration with local artist Jennida Chase and videographer Hassan Pitts. The resulting food stains on the tablecloth become a growing archive of use. To add another layer, a responsive live experimental sound performance by composer Joshua Marquez played throughout the project’s inauguration. As a take-away memento, the artist handed custom printed napkins to the public.
SFCC Exhibition, MoCA Reception, June 15th, 2017 "Virtual Wall" Installation View
Alma Leiva
Virtual Wall (Muro Virtual)
Video Animation (Found Text)
8;22
2017
Wall: Noun. A continuous vertical brick or stone structure that encloses or divides an area of land. An upright side of a building or room. Any high vertical surface, especially one that is imposing in scale. A thing regarded as a protective or restrictive barrier.
Muro: m. Pared o tapia. Muralla. Elemento de construcción formado por ladrillos, bloques, etc. unidos generalmente por mortero de yeso, cal o cemento y cuyas dimensiones de longitud y altura predominan sobre las de espesor. Tiene dos funciones básicas: limitar determinado espacio o servir de soporte a otras estructuras.
Virtual: 1: being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted a virtual dictator. 2: being on or simulated on a computer or computer network print or virtual books a virtual keyboard: such asa: occurring or existing primarily online virtual shopping. b: of, relating to, or existing within a virtual reality a virtual tour. 3: of, relating to, or using virtual memory. 4: of, relating to, or being a hypothetical particle whose existence is inferred from indirect evidence virtual photons — compare real 3.
Virtual: adj. Que puede producir un efecto. Ús. frecuentemente en oposición a actual, efectivo o real.
Implícito, tácito. Fís. Término utilizado en física clásica para designar aquellos procesos que no deben existir incondicionalmente, o no han de ser
factibles por necesidad.Ling. Según Saussure, término para calificar a la lengua por oposición al carácter actual del habla. Inform. realidad virtual
Simulación audiovisual de un entorno real por medio de imágenes de síntesis tridimensionales. Ópt. imagen virtual La que no puede ser recogida
por una pantalla.
Virtual Wall
“Virtual Wall” reflects on the hatred that has unfolded amid nationalistic rhetoric in the U.S. in the last few years. The anti-immigrant sentiment encouraged by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rhetoric and symbolized by his promised U.S.–Mexico “border wall”, has emboldened different forms of xenophobic and racist attacks against Latinx immigrants.
“Virtual Wall” examines language as a tool for transposing, manipulating, hiding and, subsequently, revealing the dormant xenophobia and racism in American society. Through found text, collected from various online social platforms, I approach the subject by examining language as a form of violence and deconstructing it through hypnotic word play to reveal larger truths.
Each word slowly fades in prompting the viewer to mull their individual meaning and their significance as part of a larger revelation, which unfolds to each viewer as it relates to his/her own personal experience. As the vast wall of virtual comments unveils, viewers are confronted with an unexpected outcome. The “Wall” then fades out leaving behind remnants of the “hate-speech”-then these words slowly fade out leaving viewers to decode the messages in the resonating afterimage.
Ultimately “Virtual wall” is a reminder that despite the progress we’ve made as a society and the continuous struggle for equality and justice for all, racism and xenophobia are deeply weaved into the fabric of our American social construct.