About

Sat Apr 9, 2022 - Thu Jun 2, 2022
Delimitation /dəˌliməˈtāSH(ə)n/ (n) the marking or describing of the limits of something. Often the term is used as boundary delimitation, as in the drawing of boundaries, particularly of boundaries that determine electoral precincts, states, counties or other municipalities.

The work in this exhibition is steeped in ideas of identity and signifiers that question place and how one exists in that place; it is through the boundaries of language that one can simultaneously belong or not. Robinson is deeply connected to the complex history of what it is to be Mexican-American (and one without language). These edges challenge and reinforce Robinson’s sense of identity and are directly reflective of how generations of her family internalized what it means to be American.

Through the use of Morse code, flag semaphore and the flag form Robinson appropriates symbols of American exceptionalism, which are informed by her upbringing and familiarity with military family life, and American ideals. The work conjures ideas of nation, place, and becomes representative of identity. A relationship to power is also constructed when one considers who historically has used these forms of encoding, in this case, the U.S. Military. By presenting languages that are possible to translate she is setting up boundaries, edges – a place of borders. Robinson takes inspiration from Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, in which the author explores borders in language, location and culture. It is in the friction of two worlds that una herida abierta (the open wound), where one world grates against the first and bleeds, that a third is created.