New York University: NYU Kimmel Windows Gallery Presents Faces Change | Immigrant Prejudice Remains, May 26 – Sep 1
New York University Kimmel Windows Gallery presents Faces Change | Immigrant Prejudice Remains from May 26 to September 1, 2021, on the corner of LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street, visible 24/7. Faces Change | Immigrant Prejudice Remains is a contemporary photography exhibition featuring the works of artists currently documenting the liminal, precarious, and life-threatening experience of crossing the Mexican-American border.
Latin American folx migrating to the U.S. for refuge have been put in the national spotlight due in large part to an escalation in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) raids, the detention of undocumented immigrants, and child separation policies. Tensions have contributed to a dramatic surge in anti-Immigrant and racist rhetoric making immigration at the U.S. – Mexico Border one of the most hotly contested discussions in United States politics.
Concern for the future of immigration policy and U.S. race-relations have amplified the discourse surrounding anti-immigration sentiment; thus, contributing to a revival in artistic and journalistic attention. By tracing artistic observations of the border, their works reveal and illuminate a history of long-standing bigotry.
Faces Change, but Immigrant Prejudice Remains includes historical photographs that connect today’s xenophobia to that of the past, establishing a consistent narrative of discrimination in the United States directed towards Asian, brown, Black, and Indigenous folx.
As a direct response to the current political moment, we hope that confronting these stark images will inspire reflection and action as you walk through the city streets.
This exhibition features six artists, three working today and three from previous generations. Guillermo Arias, and Veronica Gabriela Cárdenas, Griselda San Martin are contemporary photographers documenting the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their photography shares connections with the work of Dorothea Lange, Ken Light and Alex Webb photographers of the 1980s and 1990s, and 1930s, respectively.