Continent
Artist:
Jenelle Esparza
(American, born 1985)
Date: 2017
Dimensions:
72 × 100 in. (182.9 × 254 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Zoe A. Diaz
Object number: 2021.8
Copyright: © Jenelle Esparza
Provenance: the artist, 2017-2021; sold by the artist to Joe Diaz, San Antonio, 2021; by gift to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 2021
Label Text
"[Continent] represents a collection of women's experiences all quilted together, a "continent" of all the joys, heartaches, and work that women live everyday. I feel there are many generational histories archived within that quilt, histories just like my grandma's."
—Jenelle Esparza
Imbued with memory, Jenelle Esparza’s recycled materials reflect personal and shared narratives. The act of hand sewing cotton fabrics into a quilt evokes labor and bodily experience related to cotton farming and womanhood. The work’s construction suggests the American flag: alternating red and white stripes are replaced by colorful, patterned fabrics, while the fifty stars are exchanged for unfinished embroidered quilt blocks begun by Esparza’s grandmother, Idolina Q. Olivarez, and completed by the artist.
Esparza’s multidisciplinary practice examines connections between agriculture, gender, and race as they are carried through the body, across generations. Through photography, textiles, and installations, Esparza uncovers the history of South Texas cotton farming and its principally Mexican American labor force.
(Lana Meador, 2021)
—Jenelle Esparza
Imbued with memory, Jenelle Esparza’s recycled materials reflect personal and shared narratives. The act of hand sewing cotton fabrics into a quilt evokes labor and bodily experience related to cotton farming and womanhood. The work’s construction suggests the American flag: alternating red and white stripes are replaced by colorful, patterned fabrics, while the fifty stars are exchanged for unfinished embroidered quilt blocks begun by Esparza’s grandmother, Idolina Q. Olivarez, and completed by the artist.
Esparza’s multidisciplinary practice examines connections between agriculture, gender, and race as they are carried through the body, across generations. Through photography, textiles, and installations, Esparza uncovers the history of South Texas cotton farming and its principally Mexican American labor force.
(Lana Meador, 2021)
Not on view
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
