Heroes: Laura Aguilar
For a long time, I have been planning to write about feminist, queer*, disabled*, fat*, Chicanx* photographer Laura Aguilar. I wanted to write about her when I first discovered her artwork in a feminist/queer theory paper that blew my mind. I wanted to write about her when I went to her retrospective show, Show and Tell, at the Vincent Price Art Museum earlier this year and saw her work up close. And now, with the news of her recent passing on April 25th 2018, I want to write about her and all the ways she has impacted me, my photography, and my feminism.
Laura Aguilar was born in 1959 in San Gabriel, California, and at a young age, was diagnosed with auditory dyslexia - meaning her brain processed sound atypically. This made it hard for Aguilar to find community with her peers, as she pronounced words differently. After Aguilar’s brother gave her her first camera and taught her how to work with film, photography allowed Aguilar to express herself outside of normative forms of communication.
Three Eagles Flying (1990)
Aguilar’s art is provocative, unapologetic, and exceptionally feminist. Her work centers on race, body, disability, ethnicity, sexuality, beauty, mobility, vulnerability, tenderness, and desire. Most of her photographs are of people, and many are self-portraits. In this way, her photographs question self, place, body, and materialisms (i.e. the borders of the body). The piece above is titled “Three Eagles Flying” (1990) and represents Aguilar’s ability to create subversive work that critiques the systems of power around her. As a reference to her Chicanx identity, “Three Eagles Flying” points to a sense of displacement and the struggle to negotiate duality. What I find most engaging about her composition is her focus on the body as a site of convergence and pain.
Grounded #114 (2006)
My favorite work by Aguilar is her photographs in nature, primarily her self-portraits. In these shots, Aguilar poses naked around her natural surroundings. In “Grounded #114” (2006), Aguilar’s body mimics the boulder she sits in front of. This image is the first piece of work I ever saw by Aguilar. The photograph was featured in a queer/feminist theory article. The mimicry of forms had inspired the theorists to write about materialisms. “Grounded #114” shows how unstable the category of human might be. Aguilar’s composition in “Nature Self-Portrait #2” (1996) similarly references the three boulders around her in conversation with the ridges of her own body. Aguilar’s body is more difficult to discern from her natural surroundings. The black and white coloring emphasises the shadows that Aguilar’s body and the boulders both make. The total effect of this piece, for me, is to question the borders of the body.
Nature Self-Portrait #2 (1996)
Photography has not always lent itself to feminist art and resistance; in fact, photography has been a tool of exploitation, orientalism*, cultural fetishization*, and other colonialist projects. However, Aguilar with a camera is a feminist force to be reckoned with. I believe that Aguilar’s photography remains one of the most radical bodies of work that has come from US photographers. Aguilar photographs from vectors of her own marginalized identity. Her work celebrates the parts of her identity that are marked least desirable. When I see Aguilar’s self-portraits, I think of how she carved a space of self-love for herself outside of consumerism. For Aguilar, a photograph of her naked self meant as much for her as it contributed to a feminist conversation around art, bodies, and representation.
She embodies many feminists values but the one I find she exudes most powerfully is: unapologetic. As a partner of an organization that depends upon visuals, and as a photographer myself, I have found a need to celebrate those photographers who can take cameras and produce feminist art. Laura Aguilar has contributed immensely to feminist thought and her art has inspired others. Without her in this world, we must be thoughtful of her legacy.
Sources -
https://www.artforum.com/passages/amelia-g-jones-on-laura-aguilar-1959-2018-75245
*terminology -
queer
Queer can describe a set politics, a large community, a specific sexuality or gender identity, and much more. In this piece, queer refers to the fact that Laura Aguilar is part of the queer community because of her sexuality. For more on the word queer, read uterish’s blog post on it.
disabled
According to the social model, disability is not a bodily, individual characteristic. Rather, a society that is only fit for certain bodies disables people whose bodies do not work in the same way. I.e., people do not have or possess disabilities but instead they have bodies that are disabled by society. This is just one model.
fat
I have specifically chosen the word fat here to follow the lead of women who are trying to bring attention to the distinction between fat and unattractive. To not shy away from the word fat is an attempt to reclaim the word and challenge stigma.
Chicanx
Chicano/Chicana refers to somebody of Mexican-American identity. The term was popularized during the 60s when activists like Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez organized Mexican-Americans around the issues of labor rights. In Spanish, an adjective ending in “o” is masculine and an adjective ending in “a” is feminine. Thus, replacing the vowels is a method of removing gender from the term.
Orientalism
Orientalism describes the continued practice of Western powers/civilizations defining themselves as superior in contrast to other civilizations. Originally coined by Edward Said in his book, Orientalism, the term refers specifically to “the orient” however, the basic logic of orientalism can be understood in a larger sense as affecting the conceptualization of all of the “global South”. Andrea Smith locates Orientalism as one of the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy”.
Cultural Fetishization
Deeply connected to Orientalism, cultural fetishization is a reductionist, often racist practice that portrays certain cultures as consumable and intended for the Western gaze. For example, many tourists in Hawaii might expect to be see Hula dancers during their stay. However, the tradition of Hula dancing is not necessarily intended for such an audience. Regardless, some tourists might believe that Hawaiian culture as well as the food and the beaches is an item for consumption intended for them.