Artist and Assistant Professor Fidencio Fifield-Perez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, but raised in the U.S. His current work examines the debate over borders, edges, and the people who must traverse them. As a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) recipient, Fifield-Perez is keenly aware of the ways in which immigrants’ bodies are debated, measured, and rounded up. References to a life lived on the margins are interwoven with the manipulation of paper and map surfaces, crafts and customs used to celebrate festivals and mourn the dead. For Fifield-Perez, these techniques are a way to reconnect with a past devoid of dehumanizing labels, scrutiny and surveillance. Past and a present merge in the studio. This artist lecture lays out the timeline of an artist and professor living and working under the weight of DACA.
Fidencio Fifield-Perez is Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Missouri and an artist who examines borders, edges, and the people who must traverse them.