DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/QMR6-ZF89
Defense Date
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Painting and Printmaking
First Advisor
Caitlin Cherry
Second Advisor
Noah Simblist
Third Advisor
Jacob Broussard
Fourth Advisor
Tesora Molina-Garcia
Abstract
¡Bip Bip! is a body of work that investigates the car as it exists in the American imagination, a metaphorical and physical object where culture, identity, and power intertwine. This work uses painting, printmaking, collage, video, and installation to explore the car as a space of expression, interiority, and understanding the world through a marginalized lens.
Central to my practice is my personal vehicle, Guadalupe, which functions as both muse and metaphor, the main driver of the framework within ¡Bip Bip! My practice examines the different but congruent contexts intersections of this iconic American symbol, the car. In my paintings, the car is a space where Latinidad and queerness are modes of expression. In my prints and image transfers, the car is an agent of American imperialism and ecological destruction. As driver and artist, I navigate the larger systemic underpinnings of car culture, while using my body and gender as ways for how this car culture can shape and change.
In ¡Bip Bip! the structure of my car’s body parts gives structure to different facets of my exploration of the car and American car culture: Interior, Exterior, Windshield, Body Shop, and Crash. At the center of ¡Bip Bip! is my thesis work, an installation that threads all these facets together. I replicated Guadalupe within the ICA at VCU museum by placing four car seats in front of a painted wooden “windshield” that frames a video of dashcam footage of the drive southbound on I-95. My installation connects how the car is an interface or prosthetic that changes the perception of the world around us while also creating a space for interiority, rumination, and conversation. Around this installation I hung, salon style, a series of paintings and prints that have been created throughout my Masters of Fine Arts degree, a road map of the path towards this installation, multifaceted, just like Guadalupe.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-1-2025