Description
“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”
— Frida Kahlo
This oversized postcard is a reproduction (offset printed, NOT letterpress) of “Estados Divididos,” part of the ongoing Dead Feminists poster series. This piece is a collaboration between Chandler O’Leary of Anagram Press and Jessica Spring of Springtide Press, created in opposition to the cruelty and injustice currently being inflicted upon Latino-Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants by the current administration.
Once the large letterpress poster is sold out, we won’t be reprinting it—but this postcard faithfully reproduces the hand-lettered typography and hand-drawn illustrations of the original.
From ICE raids to the DACA repeal, from Joe Arpaio’s tent cities to the president’s obsession with a border wall, our country’s white-supremacist roots are sprouting new growth with each passing day. Estados Divididos depicts both the horrors being carried out in today’s America and our hope for clearer skies ahead. The broadside’s two separate color schemes represent two worlds: Mexico and “Gringolandia,” peace and war, heaven and hell, tolerance and bigotry, freedom and captivity, friend and foe. Like a flag—or a war zone—the two full-bleed color fields are sharply bifurcated by a no-man’s-land of Whiteness, representing the border wall of white supremacy that has long since been erected in America. Yet if you follow Frida’s words and footprints, starting in the trouble below and heading upward, you’ll find a way through—a path across the divide.
Colophon reads:
Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in Coyoacán, Mexico. Growing up in La Casa Azul, Frida would endure lifelong pain due to polio, a near-fatal streetcar accident, and more than 30 surgeries, including foot amputation. She began painting to ease the pain and combat the boredom of bed rest, often creating self portraits. Incorporating symbolism from her own life as well as Mexican popular culture, Frida declared: “I paint my own reality.” She was fearless in depicting the female form and experience, including pregnancy and miscarriage, and her tumultuous relationship with muralist Diego Rivera. Frida and Diego had a shared mexicanidad, an identity born of Mexico’s indigenous cultures and its colonial past, and a common dream of a liberated socialist country. After her wedding to Diego, Frida took to wearing the Tehuana style of dress, including long skirts, embroidered blouses and floral headpieces. Traveling with Diego as he took commissions in the United States, Frida was miserable in “Gringolandia.” Her self portrait on the border between the two countries contrasts belching smokestacks with agrarian themes, juxtaposing electrical wires in America with plant roots in Mexico. One of the most important 20th century artists, Frida’s paintings confront those issues that divide us more than 60 years after her death, including gender and cultural identity, feminism, politics and power.
Illustrated by Chandler O’Leary and printed by Jessica Spring in opposition to racism, injustice, intolerance and walls of hate.
Postcard size: 5 x 8 inches
PLEASE NOTE: this oversized postcard requires extra postage. It mails at the regular letter rate (currently 49 cents) within the U.S.
PAPER FINISH: this postcard is made from paper with a smooth, eggshell finish. If you write on it, we recommend using either a ballpoint pen or some form of permanent, smear-proof ink.
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This original artwork is copyright Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring 2017. Copyright is not transferable with the sale of this piece. The buyer is not entitled to reproduction rights.
WA state residents are subject to sales tax.
This postcard will ship flat in a protective mailer, via the United States Postal Service.
