CAROLINA ARANIBAR-FERNÁNDEZ

Born in La Paz, Bolivia, 1990

Lives and works in San Francisco, California

Carolina Aranibar-Fernández’s installations, objects, and performances are informed by her research into the histories of resource extraction, environmental issues, and the oppressive labor practices that have fueled the ideologies of colonization and capitalism.

Aranibar-Fernández’s video Oleaje is concerned with the history and legacies of the Spanish Empire’s silver mining in Bolivia, which became the source of 60% of the world's commodified silver during the sixteenth century. Hacked from the earth by forced and enslaved labor, the silver was shipped to Spain by sea. Mingling images of undersea exploration with footage from the Cerro Rico de Potosí Mine, her work conflates the life-giving properties of water with is potential for transport and pollution.

Water Labor, one of her hand-stitched textile works in this exhibition, represents shipping tankers with sequined global trade routes culled from satellite data. The work of the currents, invisible when resources travel by ocean, is manifested through the repetitive marks of the needle and thread. Delicately embroidered indigenous flowers known for their bioremediation capabilities become the cargo aboard shipping containers in Flores I & II. Aranibar-Fernández weaves pre-contact and postcolonial histories in the Americas against a backdrop of the larger global webs of extraction and exploitation, exchange and power.

Carolina Aranibar-Fernández received a B.F.A from the Kansas City Art Institute, and an M.F.A from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has participated in residencies in Mexico, Tanzania, and the United States and, in addition to other fellowships, she was the 2020-2021 Race, Arts & Democracy Fellow at Arizona State University.

Visit the artist’s website: www.carolinaaranibar-fernandez.com