Dirt
2006
Seiko print with found objects
variable
From the Exhibition Catalogue:
Laura Burns’ current work is a result of recent travels to Juárez, Mexico, where she has been documenting local women laborers who are young and poor, as well as the devastated landscape that surrounds them. This landscape is not only an industrial wasteland, but more shockingly, it has also been frequently used as a dumping ground for women that have been ritualistically raped, tortured, and murdered. Many of these women had worked in Juárez’ many assembly plants or maquiladoras. These factories have proliferated along the Mexican/American border since the inception of NAFTA in 1994, as a way for American corporations to side-step the high labor costs in the United States. Burns’ Dirt series provides both a visceral witness to the unregulated industrial growth along the US/Mexican border, as well as documenting the dangers for women as they become more integrated within Mexico’s traditionally machismo society.
Laura Burns’ current work is a result of recent travels to Juárez, Mexico, where she has been documenting local women laborers who are young and poor, as well as the devastated landscape that surrounds them. This landscape is not only an industrial wasteland, but more shockingly, it has also been frequently used as a dumping ground for women that have been ritualistically raped, tortured, and murdered. Many of these women had worked in Juárez’ many assembly plants or maquiladoras. These factories have proliferated along the Mexican/American border since the inception of NAFTA in 1994, as a way for American corporations to side-step the high labor costs in the United States. Burns’ Dirt series provides both a visceral witness to the unregulated industrial growth along the US/Mexican border, as well as documenting the dangers for women as they become more integrated within Mexico’s traditionally machismo society.
