May 30, 2008 – July 5, 2008
Tuesdays–Saturdays (11am–6pm)
Straying from the austere, white-washed norm, Swoon and Tennessee Jane Watson's Portrait of Sylvia Elena leads gallery patrons to subterranean levels of mourning. The ground floor of the show depicts murder victim Sylvia Elena, presiding over her own vigil and missing-person posters, as a sort of patron saint to the hundreds of women who have been abducted and killed in Juarez, Mexico, over the last decade. Below, a crack in the gallery floor reveals a pathway to a dusty and jagged exhibit that echoes with a recording of Sylvia's mother, Ramona, recounting the tale of her daughter's abduction. The candle-lit crawlspace illuminates Swoon's tender wheatpaste mural of Sylvia — adorned with butterflies and covered in dust.
– Regina Bresler