Domestic Goddess with Her Hair on Fire

Xtna d’luna

Domestic Goddess with Her Hair on Fire is an altar installation dedicated to wearable protest art from a Chicana feminist perspective. Art in the form of jewelry is used to create a visual voice about the suppression of female autonomy and the oppression of marginalized communities. The setting is reminiscent of the many little altars I have set up in my homes over the years: my workbench/altar, which was a desk in my child’s room; photos of my sons; jewelry displayed as art throughout the house; funky thrift-store furniture and finds, and books everywhere. And watching over everything, Tonantzín/la Guadalupe--- both a memorial to my abuelita, Maria Guadalupe Cabrera, and my Latina/o roots.   

My visual voice is expressed with ephemeral and wearable art in the rasquache/domesticana style. A Chicana/o aesthetic that marries my punk DIY past with barrio street style by using the leftovers and making the most from the least to create art and beauty. I explore social issues that are personal to me as a Chicana who has lived most of my life in the United States. My art practice reflects on social issues, domesticity, and spiritual syncretism as a Chicana artist who has lived most of her life in the United States by using items assembled, gifted, and found.  

Jewelry has been part of my life since I was an infant. I have been wearing earrings since I was seven days old, because piercing a Latina's ears as an infant is one of the few Latina traditions passed on to me. Jewelry is a message, sometimes coded and other times literal and blunt. Domestic Goddess with Her Hair on Fire is an altar installation dedicated to the spirit of protest and activists who have been censored.