Above image was taken after Mario Ybarra Jr’s visiting artist talk for my course titled Future Histories where graduate and undergraduate students explored methods for using their bodies as blueprints to explore how art and technology may be used as a way to digitize race and culture.
The Department of Art, Art History, and Design (AAHD) hosted Sahagun for the 2019-2020 school year, giving him the opportunity to produce substantial public projects that engage in critical approaches to diversity and inclusion through creative practice. The artist produced a solo presentations of their work, taught courses in the AAHD, and participated in outreach to the community throughout the year, working in some of MSU’s most publicly accessible spaces such as (SCENE) Metrospace, MSU Union Art Gallery, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and Kresge Art Center, as well as locations in the greater Lansing community.
“Luis’ creative endeavors are catalysts for conversations and interventions around culture change. His work opens opportunities for students, faculty, and the greater Lansing community to reflect and take action on the pressing challenges we face as we enact our core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“What Luis shares is a sense in his work of grappling with the immediate effects of racialized hierarchies and experiences of oppression. Their work is so vital in both senses of the word – as crucially important and as alive”
-DR. KARIN ZITZEWITZ