WEBVTT 00:00:05.060 --> 00:00:07.260 [Bed Stuy, Brooklyn] 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:09.120 [October 2013] 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:11.460 [ZACARIAS] Yeah, I think like, it needs to be like that... 00:00:11.460 --> 00:00:12.780 [Marela Zacarías, Artist] 00:00:12.780 --> 00:00:17.360 Because we need it to come out to like here, you know? 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:21.800 [New York Close Up] 00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:24.081 Perfecto! 00:00:25.540 --> 00:00:26.300 So let's get started! 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:28.040 ["Marela Zacarías Goes Big & Goes Home"] 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:34.240 We don’t want to cover the whole thing. 00:00:34.260 --> 00:00:37.720 I guess the trick is just to barely, barely touch it. 00:00:37.720 --> 00:00:38.420 Because the more... 00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:42.250 Like, if you push, it’s going to start changing shape. 00:00:45.260 --> 00:00:49.020 [Marela has been commissioned to make a piece for the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico.] 00:00:50.120 --> 00:00:52.280 [It will be her largest sculpture to date.] 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:55.070 I painted murals for ten years. 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:58.870 And while making this work and being in the community is wonderful, 00:00:58.870 --> 00:01:02.949 there’s a part of it, of making public art, that is a little constraining, 00:01:02.949 --> 00:01:05.610 where the creative process only lasts 00:01:05.610 --> 00:01:09.210 for the time that you’re making this little mockup. 00:01:09.970 --> 00:01:12.039 There was part me of that needed more, 00:01:12.039 --> 00:01:17.099 that needed that moment of creating while you're making. 00:01:18.360 --> 00:01:23.420 Yeah this part of the process is pretty much all instinct...instinctive. 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:28.340 I just try to find like pressure points and tension in the mesh 00:01:28.340 --> 00:01:31.120 and it kind of tells me where to go. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:35.120 There’s twenty different pieces that come together into one. 00:01:35.130 --> 00:01:38.810 They all fit into each other...like a puzzle. 00:01:59.820 --> 00:02:05.300 [January 2014] 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:35.760 My nature is very colorful. 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:38.820 You know, like I want to express color. 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:43.980 Once I choose colors I have to kind of record what I’m doing. 00:02:43.980 --> 00:02:47.260 I number all the colors that I use. 00:02:48.920 --> 00:02:53.900 We’ve created our own kind of color numbers, you know? 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:57.640 This piece actually has sixty-seven colors. 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:01.090 Part of it is very intuitive, the way that I’m choosing colors, 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:04.500 but then I kind of have to put down a record of those decisions. 00:03:04.500 --> 00:03:06.620 I’m not that kind of personality 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:09.819 where I like to plan and I’m organized, you know? 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:11.550 It’s something that I’ve had to learn. 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:13.680 This is 31, yeah? 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.180 And then this is 5. 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:21.580 This is 22. 00:03:22.140 --> 00:03:24.540 Like I would probably just extend those lines, 00:03:24.540 --> 00:03:26.060 like up to here. 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:26.800 Yeah. 00:03:28.020 --> 00:03:30.420 [ROOPENIAN] So I’m just usually looking at the map 00:03:30.430 --> 00:03:32.200 and trying to get a point 00:03:32.200 --> 00:03:35.190 where I can know generally what her intention is 00:03:35.190 --> 00:03:38.930 and not have to be back and forth with each detail. 00:03:38.930 --> 00:03:40.220 Because we live in Brooklyn 00:03:40.230 --> 00:03:44.810 and we can’t have space that just lets us 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:46.569 put up what we want to see... 00:03:46.569 --> 00:03:48.970 I never quite get to see it fully put together. 00:03:48.970 --> 00:03:52.300 Marela's always got a secret in her back pocket, 00:03:52.300 --> 00:03:54.580 which is the final piece. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:03.160 [ZACARIAS] I’ve always felt the influence of patterns from textiles. 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:08.900 The ways that color is being used in some of these is sophisticated. 00:04:08.900 --> 00:04:10.099 Like for example here, 00:04:10.099 --> 00:04:13.620 you know, just the uses of pink with this 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:17.600 kind of earthy red and then a little yellow. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:21.079 And it’s you know kind of unpredictable and exciting. 00:04:21.089 --> 00:04:26.270 That’s sort of something that I look to do in my own work. 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:30.220 Oh this is mom, with me, in Mexico. 00:04:30.230 --> 00:04:32.280 My mom is an anthropologist. 00:04:32.280 --> 00:04:38.380 So she actually led, like, the research on this project. 00:04:39.020 --> 00:04:41.919 These ancient cultures used their clothing 00:04:41.919 --> 00:04:44.290 as a way to show their relationship 00:04:44.290 --> 00:04:47.700 to their universe, to the earth, to their community. 00:04:47.700 --> 00:04:49.010 And the amazing thing is that 00:04:49.010 --> 00:04:52.380 a lot of these symbols from the Mayan era 00:04:52.380 --> 00:04:53.860 are still being used today. 00:04:53.860 --> 00:04:56.530 So there's some kind of a cultural resistance 00:04:56.530 --> 00:04:59.430 that happened through this clothing. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.020 [PEW] Marela, you know, has lived half of her life, 00:05:03.020 --> 00:05:04.410 or over half of her life now, 00:05:04.410 --> 00:05:07.510 in the U.S. even though she's from Mexico, so... 00:05:07.510 --> 00:05:09.630 There's a beautiful aspect that it is, kind of, 00:05:09.630 --> 00:05:12.250 the return of her gifts back to, kind of, her home, 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:13.370 the homeland-- 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:17.940 even though it will be the U.S. consulate, but... 00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:19.080 [LAUGHS] 00:05:20.380 --> 00:05:22.140 [ZACARIAS] And this 36. 00:05:23.620 --> 00:05:24.840 [PEW] All that’s really left here... 00:05:24.850 --> 00:05:26.330 I mean, the colors and patterns, obviously, 00:05:26.330 --> 00:05:27.820 are really shaping up here now 00:05:27.820 --> 00:05:31.680 and just to kind of dial in on some last taping and designs there 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:33.940 and then we’re going to be pretty much done. 00:05:33.940 --> 00:05:37.080 [February 2014] 00:05:37.320 --> 00:05:40.340 This is usually, you know... 00:05:40.340 --> 00:05:43.160 It's like two or three all-nighters. 00:05:43.169 --> 00:05:46.529 Tearing out hair and biting nails. 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:53.730 So yeah, the next month, 00:05:53.730 --> 00:05:59.150 Saturday night we have a baby shower for this piece. 00:06:00.340 --> 00:06:03.340 And then the piece leaves on Tuesday. 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:05.680 There’s a truck involved 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:08.100 and then there’s a plane involved at some point. 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:10.080 And then it lands in Mexico. 00:06:12.260 --> 00:06:15.000 [Monterrey, Mexico] 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.040 [June 2014] 00:06:21.140 --> 00:06:25.160 [U.S. Consulate General Monterrey] 00:06:27.080 --> 00:06:30.140 [Marela is showing her work in Mexico for the first time.] 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:32.760 [ZACARIAS] Thinking back to when I was sixteen 00:06:32.770 --> 00:06:34.350 and was coming to the States, 00:06:34.350 --> 00:06:37.490 I was really interested in the Mexican muralists. 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:39.600 They were able to paint the history of Mexico 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.260 in these very important buildings. 00:06:42.260 --> 00:06:44.420 Even though the politics have changed so much, 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:45.960 you can still go to the National Palace 00:06:45.960 --> 00:06:49.530 and see the story of colonization and the Revolution. 00:06:49.530 --> 00:06:54.169 It was kind of crazy that that this opportunity came 00:06:54.169 --> 00:06:57.050 for me to do it in a place that is also 00:06:57.050 --> 00:06:59.570 a building that is going to be there for a long time 00:06:59.570 --> 00:07:02.889 and that has these connotations of history. 00:07:02.889 --> 00:07:06.630 The piece can live for a long time. 00:07:23.900 --> 00:07:27.060 [Jorge Herrera Lavín, Father] 00:07:27.380 --> 00:07:29.380 [LAVIN, IN SPANISH] This is fabulous. 00:07:29.380 --> 00:07:34.640 It’s like, in a space so strict and full of rules... 00:07:36.020 --> 00:07:40.340 it's like, this gives it a little flexibility. 00:07:40.340 --> 00:07:41.760 I don’t know. 00:07:41.760 --> 00:07:46.900 It's like it reduces and tempers the rigid protocols. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.580 [ZACARIAS] I mean, there’s so many problems with the immigration system today. 00:07:51.580 --> 00:07:54.900 The relationship between these two countries-- 00:07:54.900 --> 00:07:57.550 the way that undocumented workers are treated, 00:07:57.550 --> 00:08:00.050 the way that people are being deported. 00:08:00.050 --> 00:08:03.789 And yet, there’s stories of people who come here and, 00:08:03.789 --> 00:08:06.180 like me, are now able to make art. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:07.990 I mean, I’ve been very lucky. 00:08:07.990 --> 00:08:09.610 So, for me to do this piece, 00:08:09.610 --> 00:08:13.190 it was like really meeting myself 00:08:13.190 --> 00:08:15.259 kind of in the middle of it. 00:08:15.259 --> 00:08:17.699 I want to connect to the people that are, like, 00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:19.039 going through this transition. 00:08:19.039 --> 00:08:21.490 You’re changing when you’re going through the consulate, 00:08:21.490 --> 00:08:23.949 not just because you’re getting a visa or a green card, 00:08:23.949 --> 00:08:25.470 but your life is changing. 00:08:25.470 --> 00:08:28.509 I know that there’s part of me that has gone through this 00:08:28.509 --> 00:08:30.509 that wants to give something to the people 00:08:30.509 --> 00:08:33.969 who are going through that change.