JUANA MENESES

The Stranger’s Luggage series, a public art project for the Los Angeles International Airport, is the starting point for The Weight of Things. The murals are printed on commercial banners and based on paintings in which I explored the personal stories contained in the luggage of fictional people on the move. In reality, I was telling my own story. My family has been packing and relocating to different cities and countries for as long as I can remember, sometimes out of choice and sometimes out of necessity.

In The Weight of Things, I aim to build an ongoing palimpsest by repurposing and recycling old clothes, napkins, tablecloths, and other fabrics to tell stories — remembering how my father brought us to this country, how my brother and I didn’t speak English when we arrived, how people asked us if we lived in the jungle because that is what they saw in Miami Vice. We crisscrossed this country many times, looking for our place, and in the end, some of us did not find it here.

On view until January 2, 2025