Jose Campos — also known as Studio Lenca — will discuss his new installation “Chisme” at the Parrish Art Museum in a public program on Friday, March 17, 6 PM.
A recent gift from Mario Cader-Frech, “Chisme” comprises 15 large-scale woodcut figures of Latin migrant workers that Studio Lenca completed in partnership with WeCount!, a membership-led organization of low-wage immigrant workers in South Florida who were invited to draw plants, trees, and seeds on the back of the figures, thereby bringing their lives and stories to light.
In the program, he will discuss his thoughts on and experiences with topics including visibility, nobility, and challenges faced by migrant workers.
Campos spent his early years in a corrugated metal shelter in Santiago Nonualco, El Salvador. Displaced as a consequence of El Salvador’s violent civil war, he is unsure of his official date of birth and family history. Among the first waves of child migrants moving to the U.S., Campos travelled illegally overland with his mother in hopes of joining his father and ultimately working as domestics and laborers with no fixed address.
With “Chisme,” Campos upends traditional roles by bringing typically ignored, overlooked individuals to the forefront. The figures represent the antithesis of those resigned to live hidden from view due to forced assimilation or concern for personal safety. Rather, the cutouts depict migrant workers reimagined as monumental, joyful figures dressed in canary yellow, tangerine, or neon pink and sporting extravagant hats. Rather than toiling in obscurity, they purposefully take up space, standing with dignity, and meeting the viewer eye-to-eye.
Visit parrishart.org to learn more.