CANNED/ENLATADOS is the solo exhibition of our 25/26 Artist-In-Residence, Montserrat.

The installation will be on view until December 20th.

CANNED/ENLATADOS features a series of ten images created using pinhole photography. Monse utilized cans as the vessel for taking these photographs as an expression of the limitations of undocumented immigrant labor. The immigration system sets a ceiling on how much social and financial mobility a person and their families can have.

With no pathway to adjust citizenship status for the majority of people they are prevented from ever benefiting from social security. Therefore being an undocumented immigrant becomes an indefinite sentence of being a “low-skill” worker. These same jobs dismissed as “low-skill” are in actuality essential jobs that are most vulnerable to being targeted by ICE. The undocumented immigrant becomes a product of “cheap labor” for the consumption of the citizens.

The name of this exhibition is inspired by the Latin American expression of “estar en el bote” or “being in the can” which means being in jail. The social immobility places the person in a can from which they can not get out of.

I became interested in displacing my eye into a can of food.

At the beginning of taking the pinhole photographs I tried to control the result. During the development of the photos and after many failures I learned to let the can guide me. It started to become a sort of spiritual experience, going to the restaurant at six in the morning and listening to its murmurs. I have always felt the restaurant has a soul, and in a way it felt like I took a piece of its body through the cans to reflect it. It became a self-portrait of what it feels like to host and be a third space for so many people passing by. The place holds the dreams, memories and longings of the people who work there.

CANNED/ENLATADOS

Everything So Far: The Works of Chloe Tyler