Karen Navarro

Neither Here Nor There (2021-2022) is a series of portraits that use collage to visually represent the intersections of identity, representation, race, and belonging within first, second, and third-generation BIPOC American immigrants.

I'm attracted to the contradiction of creating work that it's made out of a photograph but ceases to be one when I separate it into pieces and add other materials like wood, paint, and resin. It's no longer a photograph but it doesn't become a sculpture either. It exists in between both mediums, it can not be called a plain photograph nor a sculpture. This hybridity of the final artwork conceptually embodies how I feel, that I don't belong here or there.

I migrated to the United States somewhat recently during a time of heightened racial tensions. Around this time, I learned through my father that we are descendants of the Mapuche People from southwestern Argentina. Going through this period of adaptation while learning to process this new piece of information made me feel as if my identities were fragmented and some pieces were missing. A feeling I gathered many of us share.

As I look for my place, these portraits of others somehow make me feel that I belong. I look for connections among our vastly different stories that validates how I feel.

I take up space to celebrate each one of them, our stories, our BIPOC identities and beauty.

I take action into re-thinking the history of portraiture, by answering the question by whom and for whom to heal deeply personal and historical wounds.