Artist Residency

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte Residency

April 2022

Light Work / Autograph Artist-in-Residence

ABOUT THE residency

British-Mexican artist Mónica Alcázar-Duarte was selected for the 2022 Autograph / Light Work artist residency, to support the development of her series Second Nature. 

Every year, Autograph teams up with Light Work in Syracuse, New York – a non-profit, artist-run organisation providing direct support to emerging and under-represented artists working in photography. Autograph selects an artist to go on a residency at Light Work’s studios to pursue their personal projects: an exhibition, publication, printing, or even just space to think. They are provided with travel expenses, a stipend for living and production, a private darkroom, an apartment, and 24-hour access to Light Work’s photo and computer lab facilities. The residency has been running annually since 1996.

During the residency, Alcázar-Duarte continued work on her current projects Second Nature and Teilui Machilistli - Simulated Order, creating prints and developing a publication for these works.

In Second Nature, Alcázar-Duarte researched how search engine algorithms reinforce stereotypes by pre-selecting what images are seen online. She desires to make these power structures visible, and the impact of the biased thinking they perpetuate. Teilui Machilistli -  Simulated Order, the artist's recent project, uses technology and alter ego to explore the reversal of historical and imperial power relations between Britain and Mexico.

about the artist

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Mónica Alcázar-Duarte

is originally from Mexico, of indigenous descent, she lives and works in the U.K. Becoming a migrant shaped her way of seeing and thinking, and it deeply shapes her practice. Her book Your Photographs Could be Used by Drug Dealers was acquired in 2014 for artist book collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Yale University Gallery and the Joan Flasch Collection at the Arts Institute of Chicago. Alcazar-Duarte has been awarded the Ampersand-Photoworks Residency (2021), Firecracker Grant (2020), Lucie Foundation Chroma Luxe scholarship (2019), National Geographic Arena award (2019), Les Recontres d’Arles New Discovery Award (2018), and The Photographers’ Gallery Bar-Tur Photobook Award (2017). She has also recently shortlisted for the Aesthetica Prize (2021). 

See more of Alcázar-Duarte's work on her website, and follow the artist on Instagram.

Related CONTENT

Behind the Algorithm: Migration, Mexican Women and Digital Bias

View our online gallery of Mónica Alcázar-Duarte's series Second Nature

See more

The artist in conversation with Bindi Vora

Mónica Alcázar-Duarte discusses her new photography and research

Watch

Second Nature featured in BJP

Bindi Vora reflects on the Alcázar-Duarte's project, and the dangers hidden behind algorithms

Read

Digital Clouds Don't Carry Rain

Autograph is developing the first UK solo exhibition by Alcázar-Duarte

Read more

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in partnership with

Banner image: Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, LZ78 [detail], from the series Second Nature.

Page images from top, left to right: 1) Mónica Alcázar-Duarte. Photo by Michael Breakey. 2) Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, 500 Billion per Year, from the series Second Nature. 3) Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, From the shadows they never stop coming [detail], 2019. From the series Second Nature.