Consuelo Jimenez Underwood American, b. 1949

Jimenez Underwood’s Undocumented Nopal 2525 AD depicts a nopal cactus, embroidered with barbed wire as its spikes, engulfed in flames, echoing the artist’s environmental concern for our planet. The work depicts a post-apocalyptic cactus, referencing the resilience of nopals, native to North America, and can be used for food, medicine, and even dye mordant. Ecosystems of flora and fauna continue to pass through man-made borders, a theme the artist continually examines. "Indigenous foodstuffs, plants native to the Americas, and when the artist elevates chili, chocolate, and nopal to the sacred level, these plants in all their mundane and symbolic power become aspects of the Goddess of the Americas." Anne Marie Leimer, "Garments for the Goddess of the Americas," Consuelo Jimenez Underwood: Art, Weaving, Vision, Duke University Press, 2022