Xandra Ibarra

Public Notices of Application for Ownership Change

Xandra Ibarra, Public Notice of Application for Jotx Pleasure (2017, 2018). Screen Printed Leather and steel studs, 3.5′ x 5′ x .016″

Xandra Ibarra, Public Notice, 2019 – Yellow Leather on Canvas

Xandra Ibarra, Public Notice, 2019 – Yellow Leather on Canvas

Xandra Ibarra, Public Notice, 2019 – Yellow Leather on Canvas

Xandra Ibarra and Robbie Sweeny, Documentation of The Hook Up/Displacement/BarHopping/Drama Tour, 2017.

Ibarra

Xandra Ibarra and Robbie Sweeny, Documentation of The Hook Up/Displacement/BarHopping/Drama Tour, 2017.
Xandra Ibarra and Robbie Sweeny, Documentation of The Hook Up/Displacement/BarHopping/Drama Tour, 2017.
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It’s been exhausting to stay afloat in this era that promises a wider gap between the rich and poor. In the past two decades, low-income and of-color communities have struggled to keep their housing in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco and abroad.  Many adored queer nightlife venues and other convivial spaces have disappeared and resurfaced as sterile establishments that attract upwardly mobile and affluent demographics. In an effort to resurface the “messy” and “sucio” spirits of queer Latino and lesbian ghosts from gentrified sites in San Francisco, Ibarra led strangers and friends on a bar crawl tour to five former queer Latino and Lesbian bars in San Francisco. Together the group made alters, wrote messages, imprinted their bodies, pleasures and kisses onto the phantom walls of beloved queer venues — Esta Noche (1979 – 2014), La India Bonita (late 70s – 1996), Amelia’s (1978 – 1991), The Lexington (1997- 2015), and Osento (1979 – 2008). Strangers and friends sipped on spirits, danced, made out, and posted counterfeit “Public Notices of Application for Ownership Change”  while 1990s footage of queer Latinos and Lesbians in the former bars was projected onto walls. 

Xandra Ibarra is Oakland-based performance artist from the US/Mexico border of El Paso/Juarez who sometimes works under the alias of La Chica Boom. Ibarra uses performance, video, and sculpture to address abjection and joy and the borders between proper and improper racial, gender, and queer subject.