Jordan Vigil
Biography
Jordan Vigil is a Bachelor of Fine Arts candidate in printmaking at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has participated in a number of portfolio exchanges, group exhibitions, and is the organizer of the Bloodlines portfolio exchange. Her work hopes to inspire a critical reformulation of the social constructs regarding identity.
Artist Statement
My work serves as an expression of self, identity, and my desire to belong to a community. This desire for belonging originates in the feeling of otherness I’ve experienced in the individualist United States culture that encourages separations between gender, class, and race. Within these separations, I find myself existing in the liminal spaces. I am both feminine and masculine. I am a first-generation student attending a costly university. I am an American with Indigenous, Mexican, and Spanish ancestry. I am expected to claim one of these ethnicities or claim another label (Hispanic, Latina, or Chicana) that serves to identify me as an Other.
The experience of never quite belonging in a community forced me to be introspective and gain understanding of myself to better understand this position of Other. Through self-reflection, I consider the ways in which the dominant culture attempts to marginalize, repress, and commodify my identity as a woman of color. In my imagery I regain control over the experiences I feel powerless to by depicting my own body as a powerful feminine force invulnerable to the patriarchy. I combine figures and elements from the natural world with personal motifs to share my story in the hope that others can understand and relate, as I’ve learned that community is found in shared experiences.
Instagram: jvigilart