Although some describe the electronic textiles of Mustang Jane (aka Jane Terrazas) as “guerrilla knitting,” you don’t have to take cover just yet. Jane doesn’t want to break your bones, but she does want to awaken your mind, having gotten more than fed up with the predicaments of Mexico, particularly the murders of women that began in the 1980s in her hometown of Ciudad Juarez, twin city of El Paso at the far western edge of Texas.
The latest of Jane’s provocative work is now on display in the large window of the Ex Convento del Carmen, Guadalajara’s lovely cultural jewel on Avenida Juarez. This textile sculpture “Reconstrucción” [Reconstruction] will remain there until December 14.
Jane’s earlier artwork treating some of Mexico’s delicate social themes has been more image based and far easier to decipher, yet with a slight nudge from the text displayed next to her suspended piece at the Ex Convento, it is pretty clear that what she is depicting in “Reconstrucción” are the internal organs of a woman.
Although “Reconstrucción” partly aims to give homage to the hundreds of murdered women whose bodies have been found dumped around the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez — murders of mostly maquiladora workers that continue today, Jane points out — her work is far from grisly in tone.
In fact, is almost whimsical. The vibrant, strawberry red “heart,” for example, is — or was — lit with LED lights. (Jane said from Juarez, where she returned after the inauguration of her Guadalajara show and her workshop in making “electronic textiles,” that the battery had probably given out by now.)
But in contrast to the almost frilly “organs,” which are made from socks donated by the artist’s colleagues and hanging in a more or less correct anatomical position, the intention of “Reconstrucción” is obviously somber.
Jane explained that she is worried about a trend, so evident in Ciudad Juarez, toward dehumanizing and “trashing” the female body. But it is not only women and not only Mexican women that are treated like garbage, says the earnest and attractive 29-year-old.
“The term ‘basurización’ [trashing] got started in Peru, when seven military members raped a woman. But it is the same thing happening in Guerrero with the normalistas [student teachers] who disappeared (see story page one). This shows it can happen to men too.” It is a worldwide phenomenom, she added, although Mexico’s patriarchal system and political trauma make the country exceptionally vulnerable.
Jane studied fine art in Yokohama, Japan, and at the University of Guadalajara. She has been invited to produce artwork in San Diego on the theme of women at the frontier.
Ex Convento del Carmen, Av. Juarez 638, two blocks east of Federalismo. Tel. (33) 3030-1385. No charge to enter. The buildings are closed Mondays, although Mustang Jane’s sculptures are visible from the street.