Branch Gallery is pleased to present Pedro Lasch: LATINO/A AMERICA: The New York and North Carolina Suites and If Only To Wake My Neighbors Up—a video program curated by Jerstin Crosby of Acid Rain Production, featuring the work of David Colagiovanni, Lydia Moyer, and Michael Robinson.

Begun in 2003, Pedro Lasch’s ongoing series LATINO/A AMERICA consists of the presentation and distribution of a new map of the American continent. The work operates on the premise of the following events: Lasch gave forty identical maps to twenty individuals he knew would cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Each person received two maps—one for them to keep, and one for them to mail back to the artist upon arrival at their final destination. The resulting maps show various degrees of wear and tear as a result of exposure to weather and being handled, examined, and transported. The maps appear with corresponding texts that cite selections of conversations between the artist and each migrant, immigrant, or traveler. As the participants’ experience is visualized through creased, torn paper and text, the words “Latino/a” and “America” acquire different contextual meanings—reflecting on the deep impact of popular and political shifts in our culture.

If Only To Wake My Neighbors Up is a collection of three short experimental films curated by artist Jerstin Crosby of the tele-
vised video-art series Acid Rain Production. These works speak figuratively or literally to a connection of shared histories, marked geographies, and current events.