Gloria Gem Sanchez                               
RECIPROCITY                           
Nov 21 – Dec 2, 2022

Gloria Gem Sanchez’s Window Dressing installation, Reciprocity, is inspired by Pan-Indigenous ways of life, as well as the ecological theories presented in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s influential book, Braiding Sweetgrass. An interdisciplinary and multimedia installation, Reciprocity incorporates site-specific natural elements and images that convey the beauty and gratitude of the earth and all the living beings around us, including the animals, the plants, and the elemental powers of fire, air, water, and earth. The items and images, printed using the early photographic cyanotype process, are arranged into a circle, a common and sacred shape that is frequently integrated into Pan-Indigenous ceremony, spirituality, and worldview - alluding to our interconnectedness and the ongoing cycles found in all life. In the center of the cyanotype circle is a simple braid of sweetgrass, while underneath lay candles, a bowl of water, and flowers to represent fire, water, and earth. Feathers are mounted near the upper sides of the cyanotype circle to represent air. This is, in effect, a small altar. On either side of the circle are two photographs of the artist - from a series inspired by Mindanao/Filipinx folklore known as the Sarimanok. This bird-goddess manifests as a "twin-spirit," composed of two parallel identities: Inikadowa and Itotoro, the seen and unseen; one of the earthly plane and the other from the sky realm. These images are present in order to represent our physical connections to both the earth and the sky, as well as the importance of our spiritual connection to our Ancestors, particularly their traditional ways of mindfulness and earth stewardship. Sheer fabric runs down the wall to the floor, meeting with more fabric that forms a metaphorical river made from hand dyed cotton with mixed fibers resonating with the hues and values of watery blue.  Around the corner, a second altar sits, echoing the first. At the center, a photograph shows the back of the artist’s head, her hair in a braid, representing unity with all things, heeding the popular Indigenous knowing/saying, “All My Relation / We Are All Related.” Hair, in particular, is significant here, alluding to memory and growth; encouraging all to develop positive relations with all our living relatives, and not just the human ones.  Positioned in front of this image sits a golden assemblage made from four walis tambo (the Filipinx name for a grass broom) of palm and guava leaves. Titled Linisin: Limpia (which translates to “Cleanse: Cleanse”), this sculpture again highlights our personal responsibility to heal, to begin our own limpias, our own cleansing, in order to be better relatives on, and to, this earth. While inspired in large part by the artist’s own Xicanx-Filipinx background, the period of the exhibition’s display also intersects with a popular American celebration mythologized around the concepts of gratitude and reciprocity, though one forever problematized by the horrific histories of genocide and environmental exploitation that both predate, and follow from, its origin story. With that in mind, it becomes all the more relevant and urgent to heed the installation’s powerful message of healing and thanksgiving.

Working and residing in the Harbor Area / South Bay of Tovaangar (Los Angeles), Gloria “Gem” Sanchez earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Art Education from Cal State Puvungna (Long Beach) in 2014. She is a Xicana-Filipina American interdisciplinary artist, arts facilitator, and emerging curator that works in fibers, installation, drawing, and painting. Her recent work combines sculpture and weaving to create a fusion of natural and contemporary materials inspired by memories, stories, dreams, and motifs gathered from her hybrid cultural identities, spiritual cosmologies, and decolonial way of life. Gloria has worked within the local and broader Tovaangar (Los Angeles) community over the years to generate grassroots art actions, as well as participate in events that focus womxn’s rights and abolition. Gloria is an active member of FA4 Collective, which runs as an informal CSULB alumni association and works together to facilitate art shows, residencies, community engagement, as well as to maintain a supportive space to help each other develop as artistic professionals and cultural producers. She is an alumni and affiliate of Slanguage Studio founded by Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz, Wilmington’s first artist run space. She is a Board Member of Angels Gate Cultural Center and is on the Core Committee of the Many Winters Gathering of Elders that takes place on Xaraashnga (Angels Gate Cultural Center), a Native-led grassroots cohort that brings together Native American Elders from across Turtle Island to share Medicine and Ancestral Knowledge with an emphasis on ceremony and collective healing.  Gloria has exhibited work at  Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Tin Flats, Luna Anais Gallery, Angels Gate Cultural Center, FAR Bazaar at Cerritos College, Downtown Art Center Gallery, Pasadena City College, LA><ART, Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles Water School, Consulado Mexicano de Los Ángeles, Mini Art Museum, MOCA Geffen Plaza, El Comalito Collective, Pintados Philippine Art Gallery, Flux Art Space, LeiMin Space, Angel City Brewery,Machine Studio, and ArtShare LA.