Thousands of people die in drug-related violence every year in México; by using metaphors and visual metonymies to tie together process and subject matter I explore the idea of perception, memory and transformation. My work is derived from a need to find meaning in these brutal events that repositions the corpse in our field of vision, reminding us that our physical existence is finite.

The content and sources for my images come from photographs published by the media; both in digital and in printed form, which depict very crude and raw forensic evidence. These photographs deal with the Mexican Drug Cartel Wars in which Ciudad Juárez, my native city, has been a primary battleground in the violent war between rival cartels and law enforcement agencies that battle for control of the drug trade into the United States.

Beginning with the idea of erasure as language, I started to create this body of work through the use of a laser-cutter; this is a violent process since it uses, via a computer, an output of a high-powered laser to create cardboard matrixes. The cardboard burns through the process leaving a layer of soot on the surface allowing me to then transfer it to paper. By only using the burned pigment as the source of mark making I am playing with the idea that those events are burned into the consciousness of the city’s inhabitants; leaving unwanted memories though the continuous first hand exposure to these massacres, shaping the way in which they continue to live their life just as the burned residue leaves a permanent imprint on the paper. There is some variation in tones along with different thickness of embossing once the cardboard matrixes are printed onto paper, which alludes to a more physical degree on the impact of the events, whether it is permanent of merely temporal.