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Artist Statement
When I was offered the opportunity to design the cover for Frontiers it was a pleasure, something very positive at that moment. It was an innovative challenge for me to show something new in me and to play with my capabilities. I wanted to work in a different way, leaving aside drawing, which is easy to digitize. I wanted to use my hands, utilize a more manual technique, so I decided to work with cut-up paper. It was quite a gratifying experience trying out this technique. A new door has now been opened for me to continue working in this vein. It is very important that I keep in constant movement so that I can discover new things. In the arts universe, there are millions of micro worlds which are in constant dynamic movement, propelled by the imagination.
I should also mention what it means to be a Chilean woman artist. We are moving forward, we are growing, but that is not enough. There is still much to be done, especially when it comes to education. We are still lacking some basic principles around inclusion and gender equality. A great deal of my work is centered on urban art, especially graffiti, but gender inclusion in this field is quite poor. Men are still the majority in Chilean graffiti contests and festivals, though events such as “Conce Graff,” “Pintoras Callejeras” (“women street painters”) and “Muchachitas Pintoras” (“girl painters”) have given us opportunities to showcase our work. Much of the recognition made of women graffiti artists has been made by women themselves, though. You must also consider that art as a career or profession is stigmatized in Chile. People assume you will never make a living. As artists, we are often adrift. We have no stable support; we are often at the whim of temporary projects, biddings, and agreements. Some of us have to promote our work abroad because we are not recognized in Chile. If you are an artist in this country, you have to be [End Page 178] resourceful, jump at every opportunity. Art is not part of the everyday experience here; it is not part of our culture in Chile.
Artist: Carolina Molina Alfaro
Title: #CyberMujer
Year: 2017
Medium: paper collage [End Page 179]
carolina molina alfaro, also known as Shape, is a Chilean contemporary artist who has received training in arts administration (directora de arte) while also becoming a self-taught designer. She has a long trajectory in the fields of urban art, graffiti, and muralism. Moreover, she possesses experience working on large-scale murals and public space interventions. Her origins as a graffiti artist were influenced by the geo-social environment where she grew up. She is the founding member of one of the first all-female graffiti crews in Chile, CRAZIS. Her art is characterized by forms that generate visual movement and by experimentation with different textures and techniques that can be fused with the work of other artists for the purposes of collaboration.
