Lorena Molina

(Currently on view at the The Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery from July 31-October 9th)

Molina’s installation draws upon a childhood memory in which the artist’s mother built a fort out of mattresses to ostensibly protect them from harm during “La Ofensiva” during the Salvadoran’s Civil War. Using powdered red clay—a substance she’s previously utilized to represent sites of violence and the burying of war crimes—she grows raspberry plants inside a mattress to act as hopeful symbols of belonging and safety, whereas the GIFs question the viewer’s preconceived assumptions of safety and freedom. Together, these elements ask viewers to consider the price that many children paid (some even with their lives) during the years of war fought by the United States under the façade of “safety” and “freedom.” (Riffe Gallery and Maria Seda Reeder)