Ana Teresa Fernández’s rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a new series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?”
