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Tanya Aguiñiga: Crafting Lineage | Art21 "Extended Play"

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    (birds singing)
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    (ukulele strums)
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    (birds singing)
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    (ukulele strums)
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    Growing up on the border,
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    I didn't know that art was something
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    that I could do to sustain myself.
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    There's not a lot of art
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    that seems accessible
    to working class people.
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    Why does art have to be so hierarchical?
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    Why does it have to be such a narrow view
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    of what humanity actually is,
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    and what humanity is
    actually experiencing?
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    -I would cut the tape...
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    That's how I got into
    studying furniture design.
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    I really just wanted to do something
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    that was more working class,
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    but still artistic.
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    Learning how to work with wood and metal
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    seemed like a very worthwhile thing.
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    I could have a physical
    and emotional outlet.
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    But also, my dad could
    look at something and say,
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    "Oh my god, you're a really good welder."
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    - [Father, in Spanish] Good morning!
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    - [Mother, in Spanish] Good morning!
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    - [Father, in Spanish] I would like a seafood taco.
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    - [Aguiñiga, in Spanish] Do you want one too, Mom?
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    - [Mother, in Spanish] Yes.
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    (ukulele strums)
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    [Aguiñiga] When I studied craft,
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    you knew the lineage of who taught who
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    three, four generations down.
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    You knew everybody you studied with.
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    Like, "Oh, this person makes work this way
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    because they learned from this master."
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    Which is something that
    I think a lot of us,
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    whose parents migrated,
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    don't have.
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    We don't have lineages.
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    I know my grandma's name, and that's it.
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    It's kind of this really nice thing
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    to connect you back to
    different types of
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    histories and traditions.
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    I ended up studying under Wendy Maruyama,
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    a really amazing Japanese-American
    woman, who's deaf,
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    who was one of the first women
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    to get a Master's in furniture design,
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    and makes a lot of really provocative work
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    about identity and gender.
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    (birds singing)
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    (soft instrumental music)
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    By having educators
    that I could relate to,
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    that I could kind of
    see part of my struggles
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    with identity mirrored in,
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    helped me flip a switch
    that led to where I am now.
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    Learning about fiber,
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    learning about fabric,
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    learning about textiles,
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    helps you take ownership
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    of how you present yourself to the world.
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    Once you learn how to
    make your own fabric,
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    make your own clothes,
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    you will be a lot more self-sufficient,
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    but also have authorship of self.
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    (soft instrumental music)
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    (traffic whirls)
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    (soft xylophone music)
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    I think art can offer different ways
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    of getting to an answer.
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    It can offer different possibilities.
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    Generative space.
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    Power over your own identity.
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    (soft xylophone music)
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    For a lot of us that are marginalized,
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    or seen as others,
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    we can explore different
    ways of telling our stories.
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    (soft xylophone music)
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    (car horn honks)
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    (soft xylophone music)
Title:
Tanya Aguiñiga: Crafting Lineage | Art21 "Extended Play"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
04:04

English subtitles

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