Receipts; Paper, Plastic and Fabric Shopping Bags. 24" 1/4 x 60"
The Cost of My Sarape fits within the Cut, Copy, Paste theme because of its materiality. The artwork uses receipts and paper, plastic and fabric shopping bags. More specifically, made out of 60 receipts dated from 2009 to 2021 and 12 retail shopping bags collected by the artist. Inspired by traditional Mexican textiles, this work is a recreation of a Sarape in which the artist renders the Mexican diaspora and the two counties to which the artist belongs. Also, this piece is connected to the theme of Cut, Copy and Paste by selecting the receipts and bags used to create the textile. The artists explore the spending dynamics by using receipts and reclaiming the value of culture and heritage depicted with symbols. The work intends to criticize consumerism and capitalism by displaying the corporations that are part of these systems and how the artist became just numbers shown on the receipts. The symbols created in the Sarape by using the textile technique with receipts and the use of different shopping bags convey the importance of the land and the importance of sustainability.