Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio channels existential questions into large charcoal murals
San Diego Union-Tribune
By SETH COMBS
It’s a few days before Día de los Muertos and Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio is putting the final touches on an altar. She’s in her hometown of Mexico City, where she’s been commissioned by the University of the Cloister of Sor Juana to design, as Ortiz-Rubio puts it, a more “concept-driven” altar for the regional holiday where people honor their deceased loved ones.
While most Día de los Muertos altars are small in scale, Ortiz-Rubio has assembled a large, startlingly bold statement. It features a reflective pool surrounded by candles and natural elements such as grass and petals. Over the altar, a video plays of Ortiz-Rubio’s face being smeared with a black substance. She explains that the altar is intended to honor female victims of Mexico’s ongoing crisis of gender-based murders (also known as femicide).