Ester Hernandez - Activism

Activism

As integral to her art as the mediums in which she works is the geopolitical contexts in which she lives. Her art is her way to contextualize the world around her and her subject matter:

In many ways my artwork has always been a futile attempt to capture time, to create beauty, and most importantly, to make sense of the complex, ever changing, globalized world we live in. So many things separate us. I hope I will see a time when we will all unite, regardless of race, size, age, economic status, ability, gender or any other ism that exists to separate us. I aspire to create artwork that helps to bridge that dialogue.

Hernandez often chooses the medium of screen printing when she has a socio-political image that she wants to disseminate to the four directions and to make artwork that is affordable. She states that she enjoys the concept of positive and negative and the magical surprises of delicate textures and sensuous bold areas of color she can create through the print process.

Take, for instance, her iconic (and much censored by California's agribusiness) screen print "Sun Mad." From an insider's perspective, she illustrates the deadly impact of pesticides on farm workers, consumers and the environment. From a socio-political perspective, Hernandez brings a particularly American flavor to the Latin American protest poster. Her participation in the Latin American Posters: Public Aesthetics and Mass Politics retrospective "traces four decades of Latin American social and political history during a time of widespread crisis and unrest."

Most recently, she used her artistic skill to address the increased attacks on immigrants and their legal status with a work that protests SB1070 by creating an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe as a wanted terrorist. She recently spoke with reporter Maria Hinojosa about it on Latino USA on July 23, 2010.

Her installations are made for public venues because of the amount of space that is required. This medium allows her a rare opportunity to explore 3D and work with a variety of non-traditional art materials, telling a story in a very different way. She states that her installations were a direct offshoot of her family Day of the Dead altars that were specifically created to honor and welcome her ancestors during their temporary visit on November lst and 2nd.

Hernandez celebrates the ability of women to adapt and recreate themselves in new circumstances and environments. Latinas play multi-dimensional roles in contemporary society – from goddesses and divas to farm workers to truck drivers.

As such, her main interest and focus continues to give visual form to the inner and outer interaction between the world and themselves.