Artist Statement
Ana González Barragán (b. Mexico City, 1989) is an artist and researcher focused on the histories—cultural, geological, and political—of different stones and minerals. Working in obsidian, marble, and other materials with long aesthetic traditions, González Barragán creates sculptural objects and installations that explore and amplify the metaphoric potential of geologic bodies, paying careful attention to their own complex geologic histories, detectable in veins, cracks, and gradations of tone. In her practice, González Barragán also uses time-based media and oral history-taking to register the extractive (and often violent and exploitative) processes long associated with these materials, from the gender politics and labor practices of mining to the ecological impacts of industrial capitalism. This extensive research and documentation is conducted on-site, in locations that include Sierra de las Navajas, Mexico, and Marble, Colorado.
Ana González Barragán_Unearthing_White Yule Marble, Hydraulic Table_2023