Artist-in-Residence
Emilene Orozco
February-May 2026
Emilene Orozco
Measures of Belonging
Opening Reception
Saturday May 2, 2026
5-7 pm
May 2-May 30, 2026.
This body of work responds to the current political climate and the measures people take to feel safe within their own homes. Using the gallery’s domestic structure as a starting point, the exhibition explores how fear, surveillance, and control enter familiar spaces through doors, barriers, locks, and everyday household imagery. In this context, home is not presented as a stable refuge, but as a space shaped by vigilance, anxiety, and the possibility of intrusion.
Across the work, domestic and labor materials become charged with larger questions of belonging and visibility. Leather fragments engraved with dehumanizing language, altered images of secured entryways, red rights cards suspended between preservation and collapse, and a landscape built from discarded work uniforms all point to forms of protection that are never neutral and never equally available. Rather than illustrating a single narrative, the exhibition builds an atmosphere in which safety feels conditional, language leaves a mark, and the familiar becomes unsettled. It asks viewers to consider what it means to feel safe, and more importantly, who is permitted that safety.
Artist Statement:
My work explores the intersections of labor, migration, and cultural memory, focusing on the lived realities of immigrant communities. Through photography and installation, I reconfigure everyday objects, such as fences, government forms, clothing, and food, as charged artifacts of survival and displacement. These materials reveal how language, labor, and bureaucracy shape notions of belonging while simultaneously rendering certain lives invisible. By weaving together objects, images, and archival references, I aim to honor resilience while also confronting the structures that perpetuate erasure, asking how histories of exclusion might be remembered, reimagined, and resisted."
“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in this residency, especially because it is located in my own community of South Los Angeles. Having a dedicated space and time to focus on my passion is truly life-changing, and I feel honored to expand my research and create new work here. I am excited to use this residency to experiment, grow, and deepen my practice, while also sharing dialogue with my community and fellow artists. This is both a privilege and an inspiration, and I look forward to building meaningful connections and expanding my work”.
-Emilene Orozco, Blue Roof Residency 2026 AiR
