We Have a Common Thread

Catalog for the exhibition Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread, presented at the Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase College, SUNY), from July 12 to October 11, 2015, and curated by Patrice Giasson, the Alex Gordon Associate Curator of the Art of the Americas.Teresa Margolles has spent the last two decades exploring socio-political issues related to violent deaths in Mexico such as: the anonymity surrounding hundreds of unidentified bodies in Mexico's central morgue, the unprecedented violent nature of crimes resulting from the drug war, the massive disappearance of women in Ciudad Juarez, and more intimate matters such as messages left to relatives by people who committed suicide. Teresa Margolles: We Have a Common Thread marks a new trajectory in the artist's career. For the works included in this project, Margolles collaborated with native embroiderers from Guatemala, Panamá, Nicaragua, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, who shared her concerns about violence, particularly against women, as well as the daily violence faced by the African-American community today. After explaining her vision for the project, Margolles provided each group with fabrics that had been stained through contact with bodies of people who had suffered violent deaths. She invited the embroiderers to create patterns on the discolored fabrics as a way to trigger a conversation on the violence and social problems plaguing their own communities. These conversations were video-recorded and are included in the catalog. Each section also includes a text by either the curator or the collaborator who has assisted Margolles during the making and displaying of a work in different parts of the Americas. The catalog includes several illustrations of the works and pictures taken during the confection of the works.