Erika Harrsch

Walking together: for them and for us

Imagos

The Butterfly as a visual metaphor for woman, it raises issues about the transforming experiences of migration, sexuality, individuality and values as they relate to ethnic diversity and cultural and ideological heritage. 

The project explores how each immigrant woman preserved the core of her identity regardless of recontextualizing herself within a new country.

Different species of Lepidoptera merged with human female genitalia. A different woman’s vulva is at the center of the wings. Each woman is from the same country of origin as the butterfly in which is fused. 

A new form of portraiture that reveals the most private features while the recognizable physiognomy and identity of each woman remain unidentified.

Erika Harrsch (México, 1970)

Harrsch’s work, thematically aligned with the butterfly, share content based on migration and the surrounding circumstances that define identity, nationality and global mobility. 

Starting with these projects, she has further elaborated on the complexity of the migratory experience, to approach immigration reforms and the recontextualization of the physical borders.

BIO

Harrsch has expanded her trajectory to achieve authority status in a wide range of disciplines related to the production of multimedia art. She has established a fertile and captivating language, using tools such as painting, photography, video, animation, installation, interactive projects, and the production and direction of multimedia shows.

For the past eight years her interdisciplinary practices have led to collaborations with well-known musicians and composers, including Philip Glass, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, Claire Chase, Paola Prestini, and Maya Beiser, among others.

Erika Harrsch has been selected to particjpate in the Fokus-Lodz Biennale, Lodz, Polonia, 2010; 798 Biennale, Beijing, China, 2009; International Media Art Biennale, Seoul, South Korea, 2008; Fotofest Biennial, Houston, Texas, 2008; as well as the 6th and 7th FEMSA-Monterrey Biennial, Mexico, in 2003 and 2005.

Her work has been shown in galleries, festivals, and international artistic residencies, as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City), Museo del Barrio (New York City), Nevada Museum of Art (Reno, Nevada), Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, Connecticut), Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY), Bellevue Arts Museum (Bellevue, Washington), in the United States; Göteborg Konstmuseum, Sweden; Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (Nuevo León) and Museo de la Ciudad (Querétaro), in Mexico. Her work is included in numerous international public and private collections, including the Musée de la Photographie in Belgium, the Eaton Corporation, the Fidelity Corporation and Ford Foundation in the United States.

WORKS INCLUDED IN THE EXHIBITION