“The Gift of a Different Gaze”: A Social-Environmental Imagination of Collective Meaning in Helen Escobedo’s Installations, 1997-2010

Abstract

At the turn of the twenty-first century ecocriticism has moved beyond its tradition of analyzing nature writing to integrate new forms of expression that shift visibility towards issues of temporality, environmental justice, and environmental ethics. This paper looks at the most recent open-space installations of Mexican sculptor Helen Escobedo, examining how her artworks act as physical and discursive interventions capable of disrupting encoded modes of modes of knowing about space and environment. These simulating installations are contextually conceived and situated in dialogue with the community where each piece was envisioned; they functions as an assemblage of referential information bound to be  reconstituted, reinterpreted and resignified by the observer. In doing this, Escobedo reveals a profound understanding that change and sustainable futures can only be envisioned when integrating ourselves with Others, un “nos y otros que es un nosotros” of communal experience.