Chicana Aesthetics: A View of Unconcealed Alterities and Affirmations of Chicana Identity through Laura Aguilarâ•Žs Photographic Images

In this paper I will argue that Chicana feminist artist Laura Aguilar, Alma Lopez, Laura Molina, and Yreina D. Cervantez established a continuing counter-narrative of cultural hegemony and Western essentialized hegemonic identification. Through artistic expression they have developed an oppositional discourse that challenges racial stereotypes, discrimination, socio-economic inequalities, political representation, sexuality, femininity, and hegemonic discourse. I will present a complex critique of both art and culture through an inquiry of the production and evaluation of the Chicana feminist artist, their role as the artist, and their contributions to unfixing the traditional and marginalized feminine. I argue that third wave Chicana feminist artists have developed a unique representational arena of the feminine or unfeminine that continues to challenge Western hegemonic imagery and is engaged in a more complex Chicana feminist epistemological and theoretical aesthetic. I will take a semiotic approach to contextualize Chicana feminist artists Laura Aguilar, Alma Lopez, Laura Molina, and Yreina D. Cervantez. I argue aesthetic portrayals of the Chicana body; in addition I will analyze art works for a visual representation of oppositional discourse in Chicana feminist aesthetics, in which they reveal and reconstruct the female body, reclaim “space”, and evoke reclamation identification by revealing new interpretations, and revealing perspectives of Chicana identity disrupting Western hegemonic discourse, thus putting Chicana Feminist Theory into practice. In Laura Aguilar’s black and white photographs particularly, Still and Motion, 1999, the viewer observes a beautiful and poetic perspective of large female bodies set against the backdrop of natural landscapes. Aguilar consciously moves away from societally normative images of Chicana female bodies and disassociates them from male-centered nostalgias or idealizations. Aguilar’s photographs recreate critical “social spaces” for women’s identities, expressions, and experiences. The theme of reclaiming and reconfiguring Chicana female bodies reflects the influences of feminist critiques by women of color that move beyond identifying sexist and heterosexist perspectives that project Chicana feminist aesthetics. In the 1990s, Chicana feminist artists initiated efforts to reclaim public art space using critical social theories that challenged the oppression of women of color in the United States. Chicana feminist artists, particularly Laura Aguilar, Alma Lopez, Laura Molina, and Yreina D. Cervantez, reconstructed the female body, guided by their desires and amid persistent hegemonic male-centered interpretations of women. By challenging a male-dominant artistic expression, Chicana artists break from binary forms of signification that project geopolitical and socio1 Perez: Unconcealed Alterities and Affirmations of Chicana Identity through Laura Aguilar’s Images