Earth, soot, earth texture, and chalk paint on cotton paper

70 x 100 cm

100% of these proceeds directly support Pocoapoco’s programs. 

These paintings seek, through earth pigments gathered from different points in Unión Hidalgo in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an approximation of the territory and a study of painting through cartography, mapping, drawing, the archive, and the artistic gesture. I conceive of painting as maps created from gesture and from the Diidxazá language. This process has been important because it has allowed me to know and recognize my territory and the feelings of my community, and through it I seek to raise awareness of, and empathize with, other communities going through the same process of struggle and resistance from and for their territories.

About the Artist

Dell Alvarado (Unión Hidalgo, Oaxaca, 1989) My artistic practice is an intersection of art and research, using the logbook, the archive, painting, and drawing as creative resources. I explore the relationship between land, memory, and cartography, reflecting on the violence inflicted on the social fabric of my community and on the processes of geostrategic dispossession affecting the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. My work is situated in a space of resistance, where collectivity and the Diidxazá (Zapotec) language become means of recovering a sense of belonging. Since 2016, I have been leading multidisciplinary community workshops in my community.

My relationship with Pocoapoco has been important in expanding my possibilities for development and connecting my artistic practice with other networks and art spaces in Oaxaca, from which I have been able to share my work, generate exchanges, and connect with people who support and sustain contemporary art production. For me, collaborating with Pocoapoco means more than sharing a creative space: it involves building relationships, exchanging knowledge, and opening possibilities for encounters among different experiences and geographies, creating an opportunity to strengthen my work and to contribute, from my artistic practice, to a cultural scene that is more diverse, collaborative, and committed to its contexts.