User:Aaalice436/gap analysis

Gap analysis

 * What is the title of the article in which you identified a gap. If no article exists at all, what should the title be?

Jessica Lagunas (artist)


 * Document the gap you found, describe how you identified it, and analyze its impact on knowledge.

The gap I decided to fill is the absence of a Wikipedia page for Guatemalan multimedia artist Jessica Lagunas. I first found Lagunas through the Brooklyn Museum website archive of feminist artists for the visual analysis assignment we completed earlier on in class. I chose her for that previous assignment and liked her work so much that I decided to use her for this assignment as well. When I searched for her on Wikipedia, not so surprisingly she did not have an already existing page. This gap creates an erasure of the influential work and presence of Lagunas and the messages she intends for everyone. Lagunas is well known for her installation, object art pieces, and video performances centered on themes of body image, the pressures placed on women in society, aging, and violence. Her strong ties to her Latin American heritage as a New Yorker give her a particular platform to present her art and messages with a minimalist approach. She has been featured in over a dozen exhibits across the world yet there is very little written about Lagunas. I believe the themes of her multimedia art pieces are universal and relatable to many women and their situations. Yet the day-to-day person would most likely not even recognize Lagunas or her work. By not having information on Lagunas and her art readily available on a massively used website such as Wikipedia, it limits the exposure of corruption Lagunas seeks to demonstrate to the observer. Having more information on Lagunas and any feminist artist helps spread awareness and nurtures the growth of complex minds and ideas used to address issues faced in the world.


 * Propose a paragraph of new or substantially edited content based on reliable sources. (If you are editing existing content, post the current version along with your edited version, and clearly mark which is which.)

Jessica Lagunas (born 1971) is a Guatemalan multimedia minimalist artist currently residing in New York. Her art ranges from video performances to installation pieces expressing themes of body image of women and violence. Her art parodies insecurities and obsessions of contemporary society.

Lagunas was in born in 1971 in Nicaragua and grew up in Guatemala and stayed there until 2001 when she immigrated to New York, where she currently resides and is working from. She earned a degree in graphic design from Universidad Rafael Landivar in 1992. She was influenced by her trips to art workshops and museums in Guatemala, New York, and Europe and began making art in the late 1990’s.

Lagunas’ more prominent work includes her four video performances typically on display together in exhibits: Para besarte mejor (The Better to Kiss You With) (2003), Para acariciarte mejor (The Better to Caress You With) (2003), Para verte major (The Better to See You With) (2005), and Retorno a la pubertad (Return to Puberty) (2005). Each hour long video depicts a single spot on Lagunas body where she repetitively modifies her appearance. Lagunas has never reenacted her video performances in front of an audience. Other significant pieces include: Forever Young (2004), Intimate Stories (2009-11), and In Memoriam (2007).

Her work has been featured in group show exhibits such as the Rollo Contemporary Art Gallery in London (2009), Bronx Museum of the Arts (2006), El Museo del Barrio (2007,) and over a dozen more. In 2006, the International Museum of Women in San Francisco featured her art in "Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women."


 * List the reliable sources that could be used to improve this gap. (You can use the Cite tool from the editing toolbar above to input and format your sources.)