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Marela Zacarías Goes Big & Goes Home | ART21 "New York Close Up"

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    [Bed Stuy, Brooklyn]
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    [October 2013]
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    [ZACARIAS] Yeah, I think like, it needs to
    be like that...
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    [Marela Zacarías, Artist]
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    Because we need it to come out to like here,
    you know?
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    [New York Close Up]
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    Perfecto!
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    So let's get started!
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    ["Marela Zacarías Goes Big & Goes Home"]
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    We don’t want to cover the whole thing.
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    I guess the trick is just to barely, barely
    touch it.
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    Because the more...
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    Like, if you push, it’s going to start changing
    shape.
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    [Marela has been commissioned to make a piece
    for the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico.]
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    [It will be her largest sculpture to date.]
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    I painted murals for ten years.
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    And while making this work and being in the
    community is wonderful,
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    there’s a part of it, of making public art,
    that is a little constraining,
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    where the creative process only lasts
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    for the time that you’re making this little
    mockup.
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    There was part me of that needed more,
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    that needed that moment of creating while
    you're making.
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    Yeah this part of the process is pretty much
    all instinct...instinctive.
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    I just try to find like pressure points and
    tension in the mesh
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    and it kind of tells me where to go.
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    There’s twenty different pieces that come
    together into one.
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    They all fit into each other...like a puzzle.
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    [January 2014]
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    My nature is very colorful.
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    You know, like I want to express color.
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    Once I choose colors I have to kind of record
    what I’m doing.
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    I number all the colors that I use.
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    We’ve created our own kind of color numbers,
    you know?
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    This piece actually has sixty-seven colors.
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    Part of it is very intuitive, the way that
    I’m choosing colors,
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    but then I kind of have to put down a record
    of those decisions.
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    I’m not that kind of personality
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    where I like to plan and I’m organized,
    you know?
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    It’s something that I’ve had to learn.
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    This is 31, yeah?
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    And then this is 5.
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    This is 22.
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    Like I would probably just extend those lines,
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    like up to here.
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    Yeah.
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    [ROOPENIAN] So I’m just usually looking
    at the map
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    and trying to get a point
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    where I can know generally what her intention
    is
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    and not have to be back and forth with each
    detail.
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    Because we live in Brooklyn
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    and we can’t have space that just lets us
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    put up what we want to see...
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    I never quite get to see it fully put together.
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    Marela's always got a secret in her back pocket,
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    which is the final piece.
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    [ZACARIAS] I’ve always felt the influence
    of patterns from textiles.
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    The ways that color is being used in some
    of these is sophisticated.
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    Like for example here,
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    you know, just the uses of pink with this
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    kind of earthy red and then a little yellow.
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    And it’s you know kind of unpredictable
    and exciting.
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    That’s sort of something that I look to
    do in my own work.
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    Oh this is mom, with me, in Mexico.
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    My mom is an anthropologist.
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    So she actually led, like, the research on
    this project.
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    These ancient cultures used their clothing
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    as a way to show their relationship
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    to their universe, to the earth, to their
    community.
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    And the amazing thing is that
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    a lot of these symbols from the Mayan era
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    are still being used today.
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    So there's some kind of a cultural resistance
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    that happened through this clothing.
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    [PEW] Marela, you know, has lived half of
    her life,
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    or over half of her life now,
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    in the U.S. even though she's from Mexico,
    so...
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    There's a beautiful aspect that it is, kind
    of,
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    the return of her gifts back to, kind of,
    her home,
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    the homeland--
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    even though it will be the U.S. consulate,
    but...
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    [LAUGHS]
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    [ZACARIAS] And this 36.
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    [PEW] All that’s really left here...
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    I mean, the colors and patterns, obviously,
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    are really shaping up here now
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    and just to kind of dial in on some last taping
    and designs there
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    and then we’re going to be pretty much done.
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    [February 2014]
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    This is usually, you know...
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    It's like two or three all-nighters.
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    Tearing out hair and biting nails.
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    So yeah, the next month,
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    Saturday night we have a baby shower for this
    piece.
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    And then the piece leaves on Tuesday.
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    There’s a truck involved
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    and then there’s a plane involved at some
    point.
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    And then it lands in Mexico.
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    [Monterrey, Mexico]
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    [June 2014]
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    [U.S. Consulate General Monterrey]
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    [Marela is showing her work in Mexico for the first time.]
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    [ZACARIAS] Thinking back to when I was sixteen
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    and was coming to the States,
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    I was really interested in the Mexican muralists.
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    They were able to paint the history of Mexico
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    in these very important buildings.
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    Even though the politics have changed so much,
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    you can still go to the National Palace
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    and see the story of colonization and the
    Revolution.
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    It was kind of crazy that that this opportunity
    came
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    for me to do it in a place that is also
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    a building that is going to be there for a long time
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    and that has these connotations of history.
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    The piece can live for a long time.
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    [Jorge Herrera Lavín, Father]
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    [LAVIN, IN SPANISH] This is fabulous.
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    It’s like, in a space so strict and full
    of rules...
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    it's like, this gives it a little flexibility.
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    I don’t know.
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    It's like it reduces and tempers the rigid
    protocols.
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    [ZACARIAS] I mean, there’s so many problems
    with the immigration system today.
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    The relationship between these two countries--
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    the way that undocumented workers are treated,
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    the way that people are being deported.
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    And yet, there’s stories of people who come
    here and,
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    like me, are now able to make art.
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    I mean, I’ve been very lucky.
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    So, for me to do this piece,
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    it was like really meeting myself
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    kind of in the middle of it.
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    I want to connect to the people that are,
    like,
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    going through this transition.
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    You’re changing when you’re going through
    the consulate,
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    not just because you’re getting a visa or
    a green card,
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    but your life is changing.
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    I know that there’s part of me that has
    gone through this
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    that wants to give something to the people
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    who are going through that change.
Title:
Marela Zacarías Goes Big & Goes Home | ART21 "New York Close Up"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"New York Close Up" series
Duration:
08:59

English subtitles

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