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Aliza Nisenbaum: Painting from Life | Art21 "Extended Play"

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    I think we're going to make
    some calabacitas.
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    Okay.
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    We have Oaxaca cheese.
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    In my region, you can't forget
    about tacos and tortillas.
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    What do you want me to do?
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    We have to wash them.
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    Should I wash the zucchinis?
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    Let's wash them.
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    I was starting out my career,
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    and you were one of
    the first people who
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    I started painting from life,
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    because you were very patient and
    you sat there a thousand times.
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    I ended up painting your
    daughter and all your family.
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    I think art is also a way
    to gain more confidence.
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    It depicts a more colorful life.
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    I think it helps me to be in harmony.
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    The colors--
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    I think it transforms us.
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    There's one family, Verónica and Marissa,
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    that I've painted
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    over the years.
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    Now my relationship with them
    has extended over 10 years.
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    You can sit there, more or less,
    like the face--
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    I'm trying to replicate
    this when you were laying down
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    with your mom at your home.
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    I think that was how the face--
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    Is that tall enough for you?
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    This body of work is revisiting Marissa
    and Verónica in their home in Queens.
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    Revisiting that couch that
    I painted Marissa in with her father
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    many years ago,
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    with her mom and their papel picado,
    and all their accouterments
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    of their living room.
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    Because we live
    in a one-bedroom apartment,
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    my parents would mostly sleep
    outside in the living room
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    because they didn't want to let
    me sleep on the sofa.
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    Even though our space is very limited
    and it's very small sometimes,
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    it's filled with a lot of joy.
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    The music sheet on the stand
    has songs written in Náhuatl.
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    That speaker is my mom's best friend.
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    She blasts music at home,
    and then she also takes it to the park
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    for her bailoterapia classes.
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    My mom really loves the bicycle.
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    Her mom would always criticize her,
    telling her that's something
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    that a man does.
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    For her, it's also a form of resistance,
    knowing that she can really go anywhere.
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    I feel like whenever I get together with Veronica,
    we talk about Marissa non-stop.
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    because your mom and I are
    both so proud of your
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    being in college at Cornell.
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    No, but I'm actually very proud of her
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    because she's one of my biggest inspirations.
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    I think one of my earliest memories
    is actually drawing with my mother,
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    drawing dancers with her.
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    Her pencil moving is one
    of my earliest recollections of art.
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    I grew up in Mexico City.
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    My grandfather came from Belorussia
    to Mexico when he was three
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    and my mother arrived to Mexico
    to study Art History.
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    There's a saying in Spanish,
    "Ni de aquí ni de allá,"
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    which means you're neither from
    here nor from there
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    because I was always half Mexican,
    half American.
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    I grew up speaking English
    with my mother in Mexico.
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    I had the privilege of being
    an American citizen.
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    I didn't have the fear that a lot
    of immigrants have here,
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    that might not have papers.
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    I moved to the Midwest, to Chicago,
    to study art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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    I went through a period in grad school
    where I was an abstract painter.
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    Then I moved to New York.
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    I started to make
    these little still-life paintings.
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    They were inspired by street vendors
    in Mexico with flower arrangements.
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    I started studying psychology.
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    This one philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas,
    talks about how all ethics comes
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    from the face-to-face relationship.
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    The encounter with another person
    that elicits an ethical demand.
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    That ended up coming into my work,
    this idea of sitting
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    with somebody face-to-face
    and painting them from life.
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    A lot of painting,
    because of its materiality
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    and because of its gesture
    and texture, almost feels like the presence
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    of another person.
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    I love capturing a moment
    when a person might be lost
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    in their own thoughts and imagining
    what their interiority might be.
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    Depicting people in moments
    of contemplation
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    where they're for themselves.
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    I was always torn between whether I wanted
    to be a social worker or a painter.
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    I feel like it took all my life
    pretty much up to this point
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    where I've integrated both of
    those things in some ways.
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    I met Aliza through IMI,
    Immigrant Movement International,
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    back when I was 12 years old.
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    It was a long time ago.
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    Welcome to this--
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    Tania is this Cuban artist.
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    She founded Immigrant
    Movement International.
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    The first movement called “Prelude.”
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    My mom got really involved
    and then started taking some classes
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    with Aliza.
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    I think it was 2012 when
    I first met Tania Bruguera and
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    I was so moved by her project
    that I told her I wanted
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    to participate somehow and I
    wanted to teach a class.
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    She told me that what was most
    needed were English skills,
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    so I devised a class that was basically
    for a group of women, like English
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    through art history.
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    A lot of it ended up being
    feminist art history
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    because it's what they were
    asking me about.
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    I'll never forget that it was
    because of the class I took with you
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    on how to learn English
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    through Frida's story.
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    It was through art that I began
    to grasp some English words.
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    I got so interested in the
    people's stories that I asked Tania
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    if I could set up a makeshift
    studio in one little corner
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    and I'd leave my paintings overnight.
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    I'd come back and depict
    every person in my class.
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    And then I started to depict
    their extended families as well.
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    Just being able to walk into that space,
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    feeling supported.
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    My parent’s immigration status,
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    they would go in looking for support.
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    I think it was also a place that brought
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    a lot of hope.
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    Things have still continued
    beyond the physical space,
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    like Mobile Print Power,
    which is an art collective
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    that I'm still part of til this day.
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    And Mujeres en Movimiento that
    my mom is still doing.
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    I just had this desire to learn,
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    never imagining that I'd be the one
    to stick around afterward,
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    self-guiding with videos,
    and then finding myself dancing there.
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    Fellow colleagues,
    mothers who would tell me,
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    “You can do it, yes, you nailed it,
    you danced beautifully.”
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    I was a little embarrassed.
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    I loved breaking those stigmas,
    those stereotypes,
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    those insecurities.
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    Ever since I moved here from Mexico,
    I've been living in Corona.
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    My dad and sisters were already here,
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    but I was sad leaving my mom
    and my community
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    and not knowing anyone here.
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    Adapting was a challenge.
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    I feel like I started to connect
    with the community
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    when Marissa began school.
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    Reach out, connect with more
    people or in places
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    like schools, libraries, or museums.
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    I don't say this thinking,
    “I've done all of this myself.”
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    It’s been the strength of
    a warrior community.
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    It's very special to come back
    to Queens almost 10 years
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    after the Immigrant
    Movement International,
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    to be in residence at the Queens Museum.
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    I reverted back to the class
    I was teaching at IMI.
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    There's a group of women
    that lead a food pantry
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    that every Wednesday gets
    distributed in the museum.
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    And so I wanted to do
    something for these volunteers.
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    Every Tuesday night I'm teaching a class
    through art-making this time,
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    and I've taught them drawing and painting.
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    Ready? Let’s get started.
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    Today is the last class
    where we'll all be together,
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    taking a look at all the pieces
    we've crafted over the semester.
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    We call it the Group Critique.
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    Group Critique.
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    I've named mine “Mi Libertad” (My Freedom).
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    When I was going through
    some really tough times,
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    I loved running through
    the countryside on horseback.
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    The more I ran with the wind
    whipping my face, the freer I felt.
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    It was as if I could fly.
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    Hence, I named it “My Freedom”
    after a mare I had.
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    This painting is meant to represent
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    something quite simple
    and straightforward: materialism.
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    We see fragments of banknotes, but why?
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    Because it destroys families,
    it shatters homes.
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    We lose lives at the borders.
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    This country indeed welcomes us,
    immensely so,
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    but it also separates us.
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    I have this next painting.
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    The next painting symbolizes the
    endurance of Indigenous woman
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    because I am a descendant of the Cañaris.
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    Sometimes we are voices
    that go unheard,
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    at times we are invisible.
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    But despite that, we are a
    powerful force here in this country.
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    Thank you.
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    When you have that sense of agency
    of expressing yourself.
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    You can also share resources
    with each other and feel a sense
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    of empowerment in that community.
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    For people to really feel
    like they can use the museum
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    as a resource
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    and as a space that's really for them.
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    I also am interested in
    the structural economy of paintings
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    and I've done profit sharing
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    when I work with a community
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    or with a particular individual
    over a long period of time.
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    With this particular family, I gave them the
    first paintings that I made of them
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    and they were able to
    benefit later on from that.
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    I work as a housekeeper,
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    but that wasn't enough for me
    to get by for one year
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    or some months
    during the pandemic.
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    The gallery was able to provide us with
    money so that we could pull through.
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    For me, that was a relief, Aliza.
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    I’ll never forget it.
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    Do you know who is there?
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    Who is it?
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    Do you see yourself?
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    I believe that creating spaces
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    where we practice art
    or make art
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    is a way to connect.
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    It is the most beautiful way.
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    Being with this community here,
    it’s like finding a home in a way.
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    Aliza, hello!
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    So nice to see you.
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    The biggest resource we have is
    these relationships and the communities
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    that have continued.
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    Your resources are your
    people around you.
Title:
Aliza Nisenbaum: Painting from Life | Art21 "Extended Play"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
13:59

English subtitles

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