For my final intervention project, I am creating a collection of butterfly cutouts, each written with my family’s immigration story pasted on a Dominican Flag. These butterflies symbolize migration, resilience, and the transformative journey of immigrants. This project aims to raise awareness about immigration by sharing intimate, humanizing narratives that counteract negative stereotypes. The butterfly was chosen because it represents transformation, freedom, and the beauty of similar lives. Just as butterflies travel in large distances during migration, immigrants often partake journeys that reshape their identities and strengthen their communities. By combining these stories with the visual appeal of the butterfly, the project invites empathy and reflection. The Dominican flag serves as an important backdrop, representing my personal connection to my heritage and the stories of countless immigrants from the Dominican Republic and beyond.
Message for the Audience
My message to the audience is clear immigration is a human experience that deserves understanding and compassion. Each story highlights an individual’s courage, struggles, and triumphs, emphasizing the value immigrants bring to society. The butterfly cutouts create a space for these voices to be seen and heard, encouraging viewers to reflect on the broader implications of migration. Immigration is a deeply human experience, marked by resilience, hope, and a new start. The butterfly cutouts and their placement on the Dominican flag create a visual narrative that highlights the contributions of immigrants while encouraging viewers to reflect on their own connections to migration and cultural identity.
My final intervention project feels deeply connected to the Undocubus. The Undocubus was an activist initiative where undocumented immigrants traveled across the U.S., sharing their stories and advocating for immigrant rights. It wasn’t just a form of transportation it was a moving platform for resistance and storytelling, bringing individual voices together to create a powerful collective narrative. In a similar way, my project uses butterfly cutouts to represent the journeys of my family, with their words to describe their stories written on each wing. By assembling these butterflies onto a Dominican flag, I’m emphasizing the intersection of personal narratives with cultural heritage and national identity. Like the Undocubus, this project is about movement and transformation. The butterflies symbolize the emotional and cultural journeys immigrants had to expirence, while the flag ties these experiences to a shared sense of pride and belonging. Both my project and the Undocubus highlight the courage of immigrants, using visual storytelling to challenge immigration narratives and the importance of their contributions.
Inspirational Artists/Projects
The Undocubus: The Undocubus project, where undocumented immigrants shared their stories while traveling across the U.S., inspired me to highlight the power of collective storytelling and the visual impact of bringing individual voices together.
JR’s Inside Out Project: JR’s art motivated me to explore how art can transform personal stories into a collective visual statement, creating a connection between the individual and the immigration community.
Favianna Rodriguez’s Work: Her use of butterflies as symbols of migration and freedom deeply influenced my choice to use butterfly cutouts.
Juan Giraldo’s Luis’ Arm with Flag: His portrayal of a flag as the backbone of an immigrant’s personal story inspired me to incorporate the Dominican flag as a central element in my project
Research Resources
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
"Art and Activism: Engaging Social Issues Through Visuals"
"The Migration Butterfly Effect"
This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew
Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating by Maura Reilly
Quotes
“Art has the power to disrupt and provoke thought in ways words cannot.”
“Activism is about creating spaces for dialogue and understanding.”
“The personal is political, and the political is personal.”
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ll-Cp6Vq38X-J1cd9i-yNtbSNu8_PLuyhEgflJ2ryc8/edit#slide=id.p
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