Lisa Mesa-Gaido, Professor of Art at Morehead State University, will have her work showcased in an exhibition at the Morlan Gallery on Transylvania University’s campus.
Curators with the gallery said the exhibition, called “Dis/Belief: Skeptical Realities and the Power of Interrogating Assumptions,” explores the ways in which individuals engage with their beliefs. Mesa-Gaido is one of five artists participating in the show exhibiting several bodies of work; one titled “Pandemic Landscape: March 1 through May 17, 2020,” and two installations from her After Cuba series, titled “Cuban-American Piñatas” and “Then and Now.”
She said “Pandemic Landscape” is based on a New York Times article that included a chart of all the COVID-19 cases in every state from March 1 to May 17, 2020. The artwork features fabric that has been cut and sewn into a visual graphic that illustrates how the cases had fluctuated.
“When you put all of those states together, it was basically like a landscape,” she said, “You would have almost like rolling hills, because of what was happening with cases in terms of increasing.”
Mesa-Gaido’s "After Cuba" series is far more personal, however. She said her parents were Cuban political exiles and came to the United States in the 1960s. Later in life, when Mesa-Gaido and her sisters were adults, they traveled back to Cuba for a family trip.
“When I got to Florida, where we were all rendezvousing, my parents had these enormous suitcases that they were filling with food, commodities, medicine, to take to Cuba,” she said. “And when I got to the airport, I realized that every person that got in line has similar, giant suitcases.”
When Mesa-Gaido returned, she said she was armed with the knowledge that Cuban immigrants spend substantial amounts of money every year to send or physically bring items to family members remaining in the country. She said this knowledge inspired her to create her "After Cuba" series, artwork that is reflective of that struggle.
“I created the ‘Cuban-American Piñatas,’ which are like piñatas, but they are shaped like suitcases, and on the floor, instead of candy are examples of these items,” she said. “And the ‘Then and Now’ series is a two-dimensional, less large, little mini snippets that kind of tie into that ‘Piñata’ series.”
Mesa-Gaido said she hopes that her work allows viewers to recognize that people emigrate for a multitude of different reasons.
“Collectively, I think it’s important for people to understand what’s happening in other countries, and that does impact immigration,” she said. “If people don’t have access to basic human needs, items that many of us take for granted, not everyone, it can be a reason for people coming here.”
Mesa-Gaido’s “Pandemic Landscape” and “Then and Now’ series were created with funding from the MSU Creative Production Summer Fellowship program.
The “Dis/Belief” exhibit will be on display at the Morlan Gallery until October 6.