• + Send a Postcard
• + Add to Collection
• + Share this work

Quito Ziegler:
Clouds (in response to immigration raids)

From small towns to the inner city, immigration has brought many changes for Minnesota in the last twenty years. While many long-time Minnesotans make positive attempts to build relationships with their new neighbors, the fact remains that there are two classes of citizens: those who can work legally, and those who can't. Those who can vote, and those who can't. Those who can hold a legal driver's license and insurance, and those who can't. Those whose educational future is wide open, and those who must fight for access to in-state tuition rates.

When I thought about what to make for this corner, I thought of how two weeks earlier, an immigration raid had disrupted daily business on Bloomington and Lake, just down the block. The immigration raids which have been striking with increasing frequency were no longer happening in remote towns across the state - they had violated MY neighborhood. I decided to address this in the work I created for the Shoebox.

My initial impulse was to put up something inflammatory that would move people to action. However, reviewing footage from the Bloom-Lake raids, I realized that I couldn't put that type of imagery back into the neighborhood. In a climate of fear, I wanted to make something that would offer peace and connection.

At the same time, I went to Austin to document families affected by an immigration raid. Days before I arrived, police had barged into homes, demanding papers, arresting people who had been living and working in that community for twenty years. Arriving with my camera, I found an undocumented community paralyzed by fear. I could hear children moving behind doors that wouldn't open to us. Instead of photographing families, I took pictures of the clouds, and some of the landscapes that to me are symbolic of our changing population.

Minnesota is a beautiful state in which, under the same sky, ugly things happen. I suppose you could say this about nearly anywhere, but in this era of legally sanctioned raids, it feels particularly true. I will continue to fight for a more just immigration system that respects the contributions of all workers and restores dignity to our immigrant neighbors and friends.


Quito Ziegler is a photographer and the co-founder of the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network. She has documented Latino teenagers and immigrant families in Minnesota, created public art projects such as the Minnesota Family Project, and is currently a masters student at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Quito Ziegler can be reached at aqziegler@gmail.com.
For more information on the raids, please contact the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network at 651-287-0660

Curator (Visual Arts)

Parking Map
Terrorist Attack On Gallery! Feb 10 2004
Michon Weeks Closing Reception
Michon Weeks Closing reception
Spring Fever
Weather
Some PEACE
Longterm Survival
WhoKnows
OngoingOnDay2
OnGoingOn
Matthew Grover Opening
Matthew Grover- Untitled (lens flare), 2006, C-print, 9" x 14"
Wyatt McDill
POHOSHOW!
Life
POHOSHOW in Newly Redesigned Shoebox Gallery
Art of This n' That
Incident Statement, Schuermann Opening July 16th, 2005
5 Squad Opening
Untitled 2005
A Million Bucks A New Beginning
$1,000,000 meets the Astronauts
La Luz de Jesu
Xavier Tavera's "La Pasion"
Alair Wells' opening
blue
Frank III St Fightin' Man
In Here Music
Colin Roses
In Here Flier
HAMMERLICNKINSTALL
IN HERE ARTIST BIOS
Gallery Exterior
IN HERE
Tiffany Bolk Night Window
Each Sunday A Window Is Broken
Tiffany's Window
Trash
Happy Shoebox Halloween Election!
Urban Renewal
Biennial Wraparound
SoneInstall
Biennial Performances
Oeuvres Raisonne d'Exposition de Boite-Chausseur
Shoebox audience watches Mankwe Ndosi perform
Artists Statements for the Biennial
Body Cartography Performance
sociocorpomembraneousrelocation 2.7.04
What the Community Says
Alexa's window
Offering to Walter Mondale
SHOEBOX BIENNIAL JUNE 12TH, 2004!
Pie and coffee were served
Jenny's Window
X-Ray Alley (How it all started)
Imaginary Friends
Imaginary Friends
Imaginary Friends
Clouds
SEGRELICIOUS Opening
SEGRELICIOUS Opening
SEGRELICIOUS Opening
SEGRELICIOUS Opening
SEGRELICIOUS Opening
Minneosta Daily Review of Segrelicious
Shoebox Tour, Performances and Essay
ECLOGUE
Facelift for the Shoebox
Day of The Dead for Mark Loesch
Sachiko Performance at Elise Blue opening
What the Artists say about Segrelicious
Banksy Review
Martha Iserman at her opening
Aziz Osman tells of being in front of a firing squad
Tynan Kerr
Beautiful Deleuzers/Guattari Heroes Bios and Statements
Beautiful Deleuzers/Guattari Heroes Piece Descriptions
Beautiful Deleuzers Opening
Deleuzers... closer
Obamulator
Lite Brite Opening
Lite Brite Opening vid
David Everett
Mary Bergs' Art Matters
Chritopher Hauseman Opening
Shoebox By Night
Shoebox By Night
Ping Wang Window
Josh Ryther Review in ARP!
Vance Gellert Install 3.4.2010
Guns and Ammo
Jenny Installs
Vance Gellert Artist Talk 4.29.10
Shoebox 6.5 year anniversary Opening for Jenny Schmid
Artpolice Install