Cielo Saucedo (1993, Whittier, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. They are an access worker and artist from a family of migrant farm workers. Their work encompasses writing, computer generated imagery, sculpture and machine vision. They received their BFA from School of the Art Institute, Chicago in 2020, and their MFA at UCLA in 2024. They were an Eyebeam Democracy Fellow (2024). They are a part of the artist collectives, PlaceHolder and Cripping_CG. Recent exhibitions of their work include presentations at Coaxial Art Center (2025), PlaceHolder Gallery (2025), The Armory, Pasadena for Getty PST (2024), Francios Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2024), BlankSpace, Pittsburgh (2023), New Image Gallery, Los Angeles (2023), Honor Fraser, Los Angeles (2024), MexiCali Biennale, The Cheech at the Riverside Museum (2023), Human Resources, Los Angeles (2022) Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago (2021) and Rudimiento, Quito (2021). They have given panels and lectures at NYU, UPenn, the Whitney Independent Study Program, Emily Carr University, Indiana State University, and the Sandburg Instituut among other institutions.

CIELOSAUCEDO@PROTONMAIL.COM
CaduceusCopal, artist’s Social Security Disability Application, Work History Report, EBT card, Medicaid card, LED light panels, mattress.Shown in Nexus at New Image Gallery. 

Disabled mind-bodies are often unable to claim the distinction of worker. To hire a disabled worker with accommodations shifts their labor power and their rate of exploitation lowers. Rather than regulate the rate at which employers hire disabled workers in sustainable ways (that is to say beyond current ADA accommodation distinctions that favor employers), the State subsidizes carceral welfare programs keeping the disabled dependent on systems of exploitation (Medicaid in particular), ensuring the disabled subject's position firmly in the surplus population.

The US Army Medical Corps chose the caduceus for the national symbol of medicine in 1902. In actuality it is symbolic of trade, liars and thieves. Most for-profit medical providers still use the caduceus as part of their marketing.
2022