Joseph Josué Mora - Install Fragment: Gaffers tape as a stanchion in Alberto Aguilar's exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center's Exhibit Hall by NFA Space, Chicago, IL, 7/23/2026

$100.00

Install Fragment: Gaffers tape as a stanchion in Alberto Aguilar's exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center's Exhibit Hall by NFA Space, Chicago, IL, 7/23/2026, 2026

AIR 2024

Inkjet print on paper
8 × 10 Inches

In 2016, as an installation gallery assistant at SITE Galleries, I began documenting traces of monotonous gallery preparation tasks invisible to the public. That year's presidential election heightened my awareness of my own identity, drawing me toward the overlooked labor of art preparators, work I saw as parallel to the unseen labor of undocumented immigrants sustaining US industries. This practice continued through my roles as Director of Installation at SITE Galleries (2017-2018) and as Assistant Director of Exhibitions and Staff Advisor to SITE Galleries and INCUBATOR (2022-2025). Printed as instant photos, these images captured labor's rapidity and mundanity, becoming a lifelong archiving practice woven through my art.

This print is available only from September 17th - December 7th, 2026. After this date, this image will not be made available in this format again.

Install Fragment: Gaffers tape as a stanchion in Alberto Aguilar's exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center's Exhibit Hall by NFA Space, Chicago, IL, 7/23/2026, 2026

AIR 2024

Inkjet print on paper
8 × 10 Inches

In 2016, as an installation gallery assistant at SITE Galleries, I began documenting traces of monotonous gallery preparation tasks invisible to the public. That year's presidential election heightened my awareness of my own identity, drawing me toward the overlooked labor of art preparators, work I saw as parallel to the unseen labor of undocumented immigrants sustaining US industries. This practice continued through my roles as Director of Installation at SITE Galleries (2017-2018) and as Assistant Director of Exhibitions and Staff Advisor to SITE Galleries and INCUBATOR (2022-2025). Printed as instant photos, these images captured labor's rapidity and mundanity, becoming a lifelong archiving practice woven through my art.

This print is available only from September 17th - December 7th, 2026. After this date, this image will not be made available in this format again.


Joseph Josué Mora

Joseph Josué Mora, a multidisciplinary artist and gallery worker with a politicized identity, addressing immigration, labor, and social disenfranchisement in his work. He identifies parallels between the bureaucratic systems and spaces he inhabits, exploring surveillance, erasure, and unseen labor. Mora documents the mundane routines of art preparators through labor, material research, and archiving.

By isolating gestures from his art-making process, like peeling tape off a painted wall or pressing joint compound into drywall, he fossilizes the invisible labor of preparators. These actions connect Mora to the hidden systems and labor of undocumented immigrants sustaining many US industries. Both groups, he observes, work unrecognized in the shadow of major institutions.


Thoughts on the lab

My time at Latitude gave me the space to conceptualize my Install Fragment Archive could become. Alongside experimenting with the overhead scanner and learning a photo transfer technique for non-porous materials in my sculpture practice, I met with an archivist, artists, and a curator whose insights supported me through this process of conceptualizing my work.