Courtesy of BMoCA
exchanges taking place every day in a retail corridor. and my sister to give us a better life.” “Working together, it becomes this community Every minute the video cuts to a slow moving and there does become this connection and relahand traveling from the left of the screen toward a tionship that we have now from all of the time we potted plant sitting on the right. Eventually the spent together,” she says. “That’s part of the piece fingers grasps the stem, right beneath the flowers, for me.” in a tight fist, uprooting it in one swift jerk as soil For I am Here, Ortiz has hired nine DACA recip- flies out of the pot in slow motion. ients who grew up in Boulder County, ranging in age “My feeling was this idea of pulling a plant out of from 18-27, to care for the potted a pot, out of the ground, and Courtesy of BMoCA plants in the museum’s lobby. not only seeing the roots being Ortiz designed bright, flowered pulled away from [the soil] but jumpsuits — uniforms, if you will also the hole that is left,” Ortiz — for the young people to wear says. as they work. Starting with this initial “They will make sure the concept, Ortiz gathered the plants are growing and water the group around the museum’s flowers,” Ortiz says. “The other conference table to share their thing they can do, which I think experiences. For some, it was the is more exciting, is they get to first time they had ever talked arrange the flowers any way they publicly about their status. want. I’ll arrange them first and “I never really shared my then after that it’s up to them. story until now,” says Itzel, 27, a DACA recipient who was raised They can arrange it by color, they in Boulder and heard about the can arrange it by kind, they can arrange it by design. It’s really up Artist Patty Ortiz becomes “a conduit” exhibit through her younger by which DACA recipients share their brother. Others learned about it to them.” stories. from a teacher at school or While the workers arrange through their involvement with pots and care for the flowers, a the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. projected video will loop behind them. A collage of moving flowers flashes on the screen with a voiceover None of the nine young people had ever met before, of the students sharing their stories. but their commonalities quickly became apparent as “I remember it being wet because we had to cross they discussed how DACA has affected them. through the river,” one girl says. “I was wearing these “Everything people were saying, I could relate to,” shoes that they made over there that smell like oranges.” says Wendy, 21, a student at Front Range “I do not have any memories before I came to the Community College. United States,” someone else adds. “I want to repay “It’s the feeling of knowing that you’re not alone, my parents for all their sacrifices they’ve done for me that there are other people with you,” says Miguel, Boulder Weekly
18, and a student at Boulder High. ON THE BILL: Work “What really strikes Won’t Kill You: I Am Here by Patty Ortiz. BMoCA me is how [Ortiz] is front lobby. 1750 13th St., giving a voice to the Boulder. Through May 6. DACA recipients Panel discussion with DACA recipients. 6 p.m. through her piece,” Wednesday, May 2, Dadone says. BMoCA event space. “Although she is the artist, she is giving them an opportunity to tell their story.” While they are working, Ortiz has set boundaries for interactions: The young people can’t associate with anyone coming through the museum. They can’t answer questions or talk to museum staff. They are performing in a sense and must arrange and water plants in silence. They can also sit and rest on a few benches included in the space. “What I liked about that is a lot of them have said that they have had to pretty much be invisible to authorities, to a lot of people, and so to me this is very representative of that,” Ortiz says. “I become the conduit by which these guys speak,” she continues. “But it’s art, it’s not a political statement. I stay away from the political stuff they talk about to make it more about their human experience.” Or at least she tries to, as it’s nearly impossible to deny how current federal policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric has affected their experiences. And the young people were integral in choosing the content for the video. All in all, I am Here gives them something to do in the face of uncertainty. “Our voices are being heard,” Miguel says, as he fills the pot with soil around a white daisy, waters it and places it in the sunshine to grow. April 26 , 2018 25