The vibrantly hued figure extending across “Untitled (Transito de la sombra y penumbra de la Luna sobre la superficie de la Tierra)” lays an elbow on a depiction of Northern California and a knee on Scandinavia. Baez paints this composition atop a reproduction of a 1778 map by Mexican astronomer Antonio de Leon y Gama, which illustrates the first recorded solar eclipse in the Americas. The eclipse was visible in Mexico, the United States, and parts of Africa, and darkened areas from California to Norway. The figure’s body, which emerges from marbled and swirling layers of color, mirrors the transnational shadow cast by eclipse, and acknowledges the reciprocal, non-linear course of movement and migration across human and natural worlds. In her work, Báez seeks to underscore streams of influence that are often stifled by reductive, dominant understandings about migration, which suggest a singular direction of transmission. Using abstract gesture to build a strong, shape-shifting female protagonist, Báez challenges legacies of national narrative and ideology to create possibilities for self-determination and alternate futures.

Map courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries.