Reflexiones series
This work began as an exploration of the Spanish colonization of the Americas driven by Schafer’s desire to understand her maternal “mestiza” origin. In this series, she layers digital images to create immediacy and direct visual connections between complex events that have become abstracted or obscured both by time and intention. By layering, mirroring, and ordering selected images, Schafer seeks to shift historical authorship to restore and recenter truth. Through juxtaposition, she examines the awful irony of the near annihilation of complex indigenous social structures and systems of knowledge that occurred at the point of contact from diseases and with the inherently violent European presumption of cultural superiority. She examines parallels and causal relationships between the catastrophic historic loss of sovereignty and Latin Americans' contemporary migration experiences drawn north for a better life or asylum.
Using the idea of a mirror, reflection, and the Rorschach ink blobs, these works share an introspective process of reconciling a part of her ancestral history that is complex, shameful, horrific, laced with greed, violence, and disease. The final works in this series begin to explore the indigenous beliefs lost to her lineage and nearly erased in her life through colonization and cultural assimilation, and seek the possibility of a restorative process that reincorporates them into her life.
This work began as an exploration of the Spanish colonization of the Americas driven by Schafer’s desire to understand her maternal “mestiza” origin. In this series, she layers digital images to create immediacy and direct visual connections between complex events that have become abstracted or obscured both by time and intention. By layering, mirroring, and ordering selected images, Schafer seeks to shift historical authorship to restore and recenter truth. Through juxtaposition, she examines the awful irony of the near annihilation of complex indigenous social structures and systems of knowledge that occurred at the point of contact from diseases and with the inherently violent European presumption of cultural superiority. She examines parallels and causal relationships between the catastrophic historic loss of sovereignty and Latin Americans' contemporary migration experiences drawn north for a better life or asylum.
Using the idea of a mirror, reflection, and the Rorschach ink blobs, these works share an introspective process of reconciling a part of her ancestral history that is complex, shameful, horrific, laced with greed, violence, and disease. The final works in this series begin to explore the indigenous beliefs lost to her lineage and nearly erased in her life through colonization and cultural assimilation, and seek the possibility of a restorative process that reincorporates them into her life.
Enfermedades/ Diseases, 2020.
Mixed media: ink, gold and watercolor over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 27.6" x 19.6", unique
Hipocresía y Desplazamiento/ Hypocrisy and Displacement, 2020.
Mixed media: ink over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 27.5 x 19.7 inches, unique
Poder hegemónico: el ascenso y la caída/ Hegemonic power: the rise and fall, 2020.
Mixed media: ink and gold details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 27.36 x 20.2 inches, unique
Nacimiento, amor & maravilla, muerte/
Birth, love & wonder, death, 2020. Mixed media: ink and gold details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 27.6 x 19.6 inches, unique
¿Empatía? (Las Casas y Cortés)/ Empathy? (Las Casas y Cortés), 2020.
Mixed media: ink, watercolor, and gold details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 39.4 x 55.12 inches, unique
Desplazamiento estudio detalle/ Displacement study detail, 2020.
Mixed media: ink and gold over photo transfer on Velin d’Arches BFK Rives cotton, 15 x 22 inches, unique
Hipocresía y Desplazamiento estudio/ Hypocrisy and Displacement study, 2020.
Mixed media: ink over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 10.25 x 7.12 inches, unique
Enfermedades estudio/ Diseases study, 2020.
Mixed media: ink, gold, and watercolor details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 11.4 x 6.4 inches, unique
Poder hegemónico estudio/ Hegemonic power study, 2020. Mixed media: ink and gold details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 10.33 x 11.22 inches, unique
Nacimiento, amor & maravilla, muerte estudio/
Birth, love & wonder, death study, 2020. Mixed media: gold over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 10 x 7 inches, unique
Botín/ Loot, 2020. Mixed media: ink, and gold details over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 8.9 x 12 inches, unique
Luchando contra nosotros mismos I/ Fighting ourselves I, 2020. Mixed media: ink and paper on Fabriano Unica cotton mix, 13.8" x 19.7", unique
Luchando contra nosotros mismos II/ Fighting ourselves
II, 2020.
Mixed media: ink and paper on Velin d’Arches BFK Rives cotton, 22.05 x 14.96 inches, unique
Luchando contra nosotros mismos III/ Fighting ourselves III, 2020.
Mixed media monoprint: ink and paper over Fabriano Unica cotton mix, 13.8 x 19.7 inches, unique
Luchando contra nosotros mismos IV/ Fighting ourselves IV, 2020.
Mixed media:
ink and paper over Fabriano Unica cotton mix, 19.7 x 13.8 inches, unique
Amándonos a nosotrxs mismxs I/ Loving ourselves I, 2020.
Gold on cotton, 15 x 19.5 inches
Amándonos a nosotrxs mismxs II/ Loving ourselves II, 2020.
Gold on cotton,
15.25 x 22.5 inches
Portal al corazón salvaje/ Portal to an untamed heart, 2021. Gold over digital archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle William Turner 310 cotton, 30.67 x 46 inches, unique
Portal al corazón cósmico/ Portal to a cosmic heart, 2021. Gold over digital archival pigment print on cotton, 30 x 30 inches, unique
Portal al corazón raíz/
Portal to a rooted heart, 2021.
Digital archival pigment print on cotton, 30 x 30 inches, unique
Portal al corazón conectado/
Portal to the connected heart, 2021.
Digital archival pigment print on cotton, 30 x 30 inches, unique