Laredo-based artist Gil Rocha uses found objects from his Texas neighborhood and items purchased across the U.S.-Mexico border to capture the duality of the region.
Laredo, Texas | gil-rocha.com | @rocha.rochelli
Metal scraps, sign remnants, fencing, plastic bottles, and other discarded items litter Gil Rocha’s warehouse-like studio in the border town of Laredo, Texas. He sources his materials from his neighborhood’s streets and shops in Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of the Rio Grande, and transforms them into richly layered works of art that are a reflection of border culture. Rocha explains that his work “is a testament to the persistence of life amidst decay and the undying spirit that refuses to be silenced by the forces of division.”
Ya Mero (Almost) (2024) was commissioned for Austin’s Mexic-Arte Museum’s exhibition Creating Encuentros: Changarrito 2012–2024. Like other works in the exhibition, Rocha’s references the changarrito, or vendor cart, an object intrinsically connected to Mexican culture. His installation speaks to ingenuity, community, and foodways, and also represents the challenges faced by migrants. Ya Mero is an imaginary oasis along a truly treacherous journey. While one side offers canned food, water bottles, tools, saint cards, medallions, and other required items, the opposite side is cloaked in camouflage tarp to blend into the terrain. The work is a reminder of the life-or-death situations that migrants encounter.
Along with large-scale sculptures, Rocha often creates smaller wall-mounted works. Though some may consider his art assemblage, others may associate it with the term rasquachismo, coined by Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto. The term is rooted in the word rasquache, which historically carries a negative connotation of being lower-class, but artists working in this style today describe it as a DIY mentality of being resourceful and making something significant out of what others deem trash. Rasquachismo is culturally and geographically specific but it connects to global cultures, like Brazil’s gambiarra and India’s jugaad.
Rocha’s work also juxtaposes found objects with cultural touchpoints, like books, tapes, and records. Using these materials the artist captures the beauty and the brutality existing at the U.S.-Mexico border, a place where locals are constantly navigating both sides of the ever-increasing divide.
