will be featured in this week's MCA First Friday event, which will mark the opening of her 12x12 exhibition at the MCA. She will discuss her work an ideas during an informal gallery talk on Tuesday, October 13, at 6pm.

Maria Gaspar's performance, Oblation for a Parade, is inspired by how the artist feels her Mexican heritage has become commodified. She, along with other circus-like performers and musicians, lead a funerary procession throughout the museum during the October First Fridays, collecting people to join them along the way. During the collaborative march, the artist parades a brown, sculptural shell, reminiscent of a burial mound. This shell, which the artist feels represents the draining of authentic culture from society, particularly from persons who are brown, remains in the gallery for the month. Other remnants of the parade, including flowers and confetti, are left in the gallery and naturally decompose to brown, exposing and challenging the ability of symbols to signify a culture.

Pictured is Maria Gaspar, Oblation for Another Parade, 2009.