Ni De Aqui Carpetas
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Monica Crystal Ocegueda (Ella/She/Her) is a Mexican-American interdisciplinary artist from working across photography, film, sculpture, printmaking, and installation. Collaborating with communities throughout the Central Valley, including latina women,  farmworkers, and underserved schools, her practice centers representation and storytelling. Drawing from personal experiences, family archives, and the natural landscape of the Central Valley, she explores identity, family, womanhood, and belonging. Through experimentation and merging of mediums she reimagines stories of the past to reflect on the present and envision new futures.

 

Her current research explores Chicana and Mexican identities and the complexities of belonging shaped by the Central Valley and Mexico, the lack of arts in the Central Valley, the treatment of Latinas in education, and generational trauma of family histories. Beyond her artistic practice, Ocegueda hopes to build spaces and opportunities for her latino communities in the arts, education, and research. 

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Monica Crystal Ocegueda (ella/she/her) es una artista interdisciplinaria mexicoamericana que trabaja con fotografía, cine, escultura, grabado e instalación. A través de colaboraciones con comunidades de todo el Valle Central, incluidas mujeres latinas, trabajadores agrícolas y escuelas con bajos recursos, su práctica artística se centra en la representación y la narración de historias. Inspirándose en sus experiencias personales, los archivos familiares y el paisaje natural del Valle Central, explora temas como la identidad, la familia, la feminidad y el sentido de pertenencia. Mediante la experimentación y la combinación de distintos medios artísticos, reimagina historias del pasado para reflexionar sobre el presente e imaginar nuevos futuros.

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Su investigación actual explora las identidades chicanas y mexicanas, así como las complejidades del sentido de pertenencia moldeadas por el Valle Central y México, la falta de acceso a las artes en el Valle Central, el trato que reciben las mujeres latinas en el ámbito educativo y el trauma generacional presente en las historias familiares. Más allá de su práctica artística, Ocegueda espera crear espacios y oportunidades para que sus comunidades latinas puedan desarrollarse y participar en las artes, la educación y la investigación.

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ARTWORKS FROM THIS INSTALLATION

LENGUAS

DELICADA

LO QUE UNA VEZ FUE DELICADO SE CONVIERTE EN SÓLIDO

SOLO VENTANAS

CORAZÓN DE NOPAL

CACTI

IZQUIERDA

Delicada

ME QUIERES MUCHO, NO ME QUIERES NADA

Me Quieres Mucho, No Me Quieres Nada (2026) is an installation I constructed during my month-long residency at Casa Lü in Mexico City. The work is an abstracted self-portrait built from the emotional residue of the last several years, my experiences within a past relationship, betrayal, sexism, comparison, questions about my cultural identity, and the complicated feeling of being loved by people who no longer seemed to like, understand, or accept me.

 

I was thinking about what it means to be “liked, but not liked.” To once feel wanted by the people I loved and then experience rejection, comparison, criticism, or dismissal from those same people. 

 

I approached this installation much like I approach filmmaking. Coming from a cinema background, I think of this body of work as a film. There are characters, textures, color palettes, compositions, objects, symbols, and a soundtrack. The installation is accompanied by a five-minute poem that must be listened to while moving through the space, making the viewer not simply an observer, but part of the narrative and a forced listener to this specific story. 

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Every element carries a piece of the story. The cacti, thorns, tongues, lace, windows, architectural forms, and the color pink become characters within this emotional landscape. Pink is deeply connected to the visual landscape of Mexico, its architecture, cars, clothing, and everyday environments, but it has also become a color which I identify myself with in my artwork. I wanted the color to be "too much", because I've been told that I am too much. Instead of letting that hurt me, I do it purposefully in this work. It's a color so obvious that you can't help but see it, its presence. 

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Returning to Mexico allowed me the opportunity to reclaim my narrative and to reconnect with materials, soil, thorns, textures, colors that connected to my identity. Working with these materials became unexpectedly therapeutic. I could experiment, make mistakes, be excessive, be angry, be tender, and, most importantly, make whatever I wanted, which is a very normal part of expressing oneself in a healthy and artistic way. Me Quieres Mucho, No Me Quieres Nada is stubborn, vulnerable, angry, playful, ugly, but also beautiful. It's a self reflection of not being perfect, but being honest. I have expereinced many ugly things, but I have also experienced many beautiful things. It is a space where I allow myself to remember what happened, grieve what I lost, and confront what still hurts.

 

I heal through making art; I take what I cannot always say and give it a physical form. Although this installation comes from my own experiences, I hope that its emotional honesty creates a space for others to recognize something of themselves. To feel heard, to feel seen, to confront their own pain, and perhaps to begin healing.

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