For her the morgue reflects society, particularly Mexican urban experience, where drug-related crime, poverty, political upheaval, and military action have resulted in violence and death;[7]"The work of Teresa Margolles has always taken the human body and its liquid components as protagonists; they serve as vehicles for a relentless indictment of the growing violence in the world at large and in her own native country in particular, namely Mexico.

[11] Since then her independent art practice continues to explore themes of death, violence and exclusion, specifically using forensic material and human remains.

[16] The first installation is titled En el aire, a hallway full of soap bubbles from a machine that creates a bright, peaceful atmosphere, but in reality, it’s made from the water used to wash the bodies before an autopsy in the morgue.

Pieces in the show included the flag hanging outside the Mexico pavilion, which was dyed with blood from crimes scenes, and jewelry made with glass from shattered windows.

[18] In 2023 she was invited to participate in the 16th Cuenca Biennale, in Ecuador, curated by Ferran Barenblit, where she presented the piece "El poder".

The piece consists of a 3.3-metric-ton cube, which is covered in 726 face masks taken from Brazilian and British "trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people," many of whom are sex workers.

[20] It references tzompantl and is dedicated to Margolles' friend Karla La Borrada, a transgender woman who was murdered in Juárez in 2015.

[21][22][5] The Guardian praised the piece as a "haunting" memorial that "emulates the melancholy dignity of London’s older public art".

[26] In 2016 she was a part of the Current:LA Biennial made by the Department of Cultural Affairs in the city of Los Angeles.