Activate: Market street 7

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme
October 15th – December 19th
Storefront Window @ 75 Market Street

DeFence was the originally a collaborative large mixed media work that Nancy Saleme and Patricia Cazorla, created as an artist duo in 2010. This work was inspired by the enforcement of a new anti-immigration law in Arizona State. DeFence is a tribute to farm workers throughout the country. Mostly neglected Mexican and Central American immigrants who work in precarious conditions in order to maintain the food industry chain. The artwork has been exhibited as public art, and has since had profound impact among the viewers for its meaningful content.
 
Today, it seems extremely relevant to re-stage this work, because hard-working Mexican immigrants are currently on the hot plate of the US political debate. In this new version of DeFence, Cazorla and Saleme are including a well prepared dinner table to reinforce the connection between everybody’s meals and the farmland. An association which is consigned to oblivion by many urbanites. The piece has an important educational component, especially to the young college students who pass by daily. This installation talks about gratitude and recognition for the efforts of the other. It brings to light the image of the invisible picker who feed us everyday and perhaps spreads the powerful humanistic concept of compassion.

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme began working together in 2010 focusing on immigration issues. Since then, they have been awarded exhibitions and commissions such as the 2012 Juried exhibition at the Hammond Museum & Japanese Stroll Garden, North Salem, NY; 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany; Art in City Hall, Philadelphia, PA; Jose Cuervo Traditional Mural Project, NYC; Armory Artsweek by Lehman College Art Gallery at Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY; The Garment District NYC, Not Festival 2013, Copenhagen, Denmark, Market Street Convergence at Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, NJ and the Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ. Their work has been reviewed in Univision News, Remezcla, EFE Spanish international news agency, El Diario – La Prensa, Univision 41, Daily News- New York-Bronx, and Riverdale Press. They have participated in the DUMBO Arts Festival 2013 and lately they have been commissioned a public art piece by Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, funded by the Knight Foundation. They have been awarded with the NFA Artist/Ensemble Project Grant by NALAC for the public art project Lighting the Road at the Port Authority of NY & NJ commissioned by the Garment District NYC.