San Francisco-based artist Ana Teresa Fernández has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Under Pressure' at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. The exhibition, a four-year project, features works including oil paintings and a sculptural piece made from a transformed hose, all centered on themes of water and environmental fragility. A key installation involves a white balloon pressed by a stiletto heel, symbolizing human activity pushing the planet to a breaking point.
The exhibition's significance extends beyond the museum walls. Fernández organized a large-scale participatory performance on Chicago's lakefront, where hundreds of volunteers used mirrors to form a giant Morse code S.O.S. signal, pleading for environmental action. This 'social monument' echoes a similar event she led in Laguna Beach, California, framing the exhibition as a direct, community-engaged call to address climate change and the loss of biodiversity and languages.