Dina Perlasca Corella

Name of School
New Mexico State University – Las Cruces NM

Expected Graduation Date:
05/07/2022

Faculty Nominator
Julia Barello

Reason for Faculty Nomination
Dina Perlasca is a driven and skilled artist whose work emanates from her upbringing in a contested border region. Human displacement is triggered by many factors including environmental and social, and Perlasca’s focus is specifically upon how women of this region are impacted by these and other factors. Dina’s awareness of material value is honed from living in one of the poorest communities in the country. She works with repurposed and recycled materials, creating art out of her familial objects and recycling her clay. Dina is a single mother of three children who made the commitment to her MFA education and as a result struggles to put food on the table day to day. Her sense of community is huge, she serves as the Student Director at Large for NCECA. Her drive is unparalleled in my experience and her commitment to speaking unpalatable truths is necessary as we move into the future.

Please provide a brief description of your art or medium.
My medium is earth, I work with clay, wood, metals, plants, mixed media fabrics either inspired or coming from my Mexican heritage and borderland living.

Is your artwork handmade by you? If not, please explain
All of my ceramic work is hand-make by me and the repourpused furniture that is used in my work has been handed down to me by my family that lives in the borderland region of El Paso TX and Cd. Juarez Chih. Mexico

Are all or some of the components locally sourced?
Yes, all of my materials are locally sourced in the Paso del Norte Region in the border of Cd. Juarez Chih and El Paso TX, weather it is clay, wood, plants, they are all locally sourced.

Artist’s Statement:
My work addresses the issues and effects of female population displacement in the Paso del Norte Region. Machismo (Mexican chauvinistic male dominated social structure) and traditional social expectations drive young Hispanic woman to seek opportunities outside of their oppressed communities. And yet, the love for their festivities, colors, landscapes and rituals remains.

My work fosters the preservation of oneself though images of familiar forms, domestic architecture, ideas and objects. It fosters the right to the memory and connection to one’s culture, earth, plant species, the love for one’s heritage and roots. It reinforces the value of family though the use of recycled heirlooms, clay sculptures and fauna to create a new system of beliefs inspired in the past yet adapted for the future.

How you will use the Fellowship funds if you are chosen as the winner.
I will use my funds to locally purchase equipmetn materials and necessary supplies to create my MFA thesis exhibition at the New Mexico State University Museum of Art in Las Cruces NM, and two additional bodies of work that I will work and exhibit throughout the summer and fall of 2022. With these exhibitions I will be able to sustain my passion and journey of the conservation of my roots and tradition by making art that creates awareness of the female population displacement in the Paso del Norte Region, and also to encourage others to preserve themselves though connections they themselves might be displaced from. As human beings it is essential to be able to be connected to a space, land, to have a sense of belonging and the desire to create a place where you can belong to.