List of Objects
El Anatsui-Seepage-Susman Gallery (entering through the Tate Gallery the piece will be on the right wall)
Sarah Cain-synchronized dreaming-Huntington Gallery (entering through the Schweitzer Gallery the piece will be on the right wall)
Jorge Eielson-Quipus 58 B-Huntington Gallery (entering through the Schweitzer Gallery the piece will be on the right wall)
Cildo Meireles-Missao/Missoes [Mission/Missions] (How to Build Cathedrals-Tate Gallery (entering through the Huntington Gallery or Susan Gallery)
Donald Moffett-Mr. Gay in the U.S.A (2001)-Klein Gallery (exiting the European section and through the M gallery you will see the piece on the right wall)
Tavares Strachan-Panchen Lama from The Constellation Series-“S Gallery” right before entering the Stein Gallery (entering through the Stein Gallery the piece will be on the left wall)
Vincent Valdez-Untitled, from The Strangest Fruit- “S Gallery” right before entering the Stein Gallery (entering through the Stein Gallery the piece will be on the left wall)
Pseudo-Exhibition
Personal Identity Exhibition
This fall 2015 semester my work has been focused on my personal identity. For this exhibition I have chosen two of my pieces, one from senior salon and the other from intaglio.
The first piece I would like to discuss is my print. For my print series I wanted to get in touch with my Mexican heritage. I am fifth generation Mexican American and I feel like I have lost a lot of my culture through time. This piece I call “The Butterfly II.” The subject is on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforces federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration to promote homeland security and public safety.” [i] However, with friends sharing their past experiences with me I have noticed that many Mexicans and Mexican Americans have negative views about ICE. My own view about ICE began to change as I saw good people being deported. Another reason was hearing about Arizona’s law that would allow officers to use racial profiling to check if someone had papers. So, for this piece I chose the monarch butterfly as a symbol for Mexican American immigrants. The monarch migrates between the USA and Mexico so I thought it’d be a good symbol of the Mexican dream of a better life. To represent the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement I drew a hand with a tattoo that said ICE. This hand represents the heavy hand of the government who enforcing these laws, but who at the same time take away someone’s dream.
The next piece is a sculpture that I have not titled yet. I was always a quiet person. My mother said I did not say my first word until I was four years old. I spent a lot of time with my grandfather which made me quieter because I had no one my own age to talk to. I also had a strict Catholic background which made me really reserved. I was bullied in school because I was so quiet and reserved. This made me retreat into myself and art was my only way of staying sane. For this project I picked materials I thought symbolized me. I chose panty hose because of its fragileness which reminded me of having thin skin. I also chose wire because of its flexibility like it is giving into other easily. For this piece I bundled wire together which created a form that looked like it was enclosed in itself and I completely related to it. Then I stretched panty hose over the wire creating this thin flesh tone skin. I then twisted the end of the panty hose and connected it to the other side. This creates a feeling that at any time the sculpture can unravel which is how I feel sometimes. This piece I feel embodies me because of the materials as well as its form. The wire creates this chaos on the inside while the pantyhose create a thin layer exposing the wire within.
I have always been interested in identity and how we are shaped by our identity. I have selected other artists that talk about their identity as well as use materials in a unique way.
The first artist I would like to discuss is El Anatsui’s, “Seepage.” El Anatsui was born in Anyako, Ghana in 1944, looks to recognize the beauty in ordinary objects. This piece is made up of flattened aluminum wrappers from local Nigerian-brand liquor bottles. This work represents Africa’s problem with consuming alcohol. Historically Africans traded ivory, gold, and slaves for alcohol form colonial traders. This pattern resembles kente cloth which is a Ghanaian fabric used for religious and ceremonial occasions made by male weavers (Blanton wall text). What drew me to this piece was that he not only used material in a unique way, but he connected it to his culture historically, addressing an issue going on today, and he his father was a weaver, so he had a personal relationship with this pattern as well. In my pieces I either focused on material as a symbol of identity or using symbols to represent my cultural identity. In El Anatsui’s piece it encompasses everything about his identity which I love.
Cildo Meireles’ was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1948. The piece “Missao/Missoes” is a critique on missionary trips established during the colonial times when they would convert the indigenous people to Catholism. This piece represents a Cathedral to show the social and political reasons for those missions. The column of communion wafers shows the religious role. The coins resemble the creation of wealth and the cattle bones show the agricultural exploitation (Blanton wall text). A person working here told me that there were several installations like this piece around the world. The coins where changed out to whatever currency that country had to reflect that countries. I liked this piece because again it shows Meireles identity only he focused on his historical identity. All of our identities have been shaped because of events like this one. I am Mexican American so I can relate a lot to this piece. I contemplate the manipulation that took place then, but also question where I would be if the missions did not take place.
Jorge Eilson was born in 1924 in Lima, Peru. When I saw this piece I was drawn to it at first sight because it was so simple yet this knot made it aesthetically beautiful to me. I did not know what Quipus meant and assumed this piece was purely abstract. Upon reading the wall text I realized this was not the case. His piece “Quipus 58 B” is part of a series of Quipus paintings he did. Quipu is an Andean counting device where knotted strings store and transmit data. The title helps the audience see that the knot refers to a specific indigenous tradition (Blanton wall text). Eilson is using his heritage to create his art. This piece reminds me of both my print and my sculpture. My sculpture because at first glance it looks abstract, but has a deeper meaning to it. It also reminds me of my print because we both reference our cultural background in creating these pieces.
Donald Moffett was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1955. Moffett often tackles political issues like homosexuality. In his piece “Mr. Gay in the U.S.A” he shows Ronald Gay being sentenced. Mr. Gay opened fire in a gay bar because he did not like being thought of as Gay because of his last name (Blanton wall texts). Moffett is fighting for gay rights through his pieces by confronting the issue head on. The depiction of Mr. Gay is intimidating and hate filled. You can feel his hatred and it’s that depiction that makes you realize or at the question the validity of homophobia. I chose this piece because Moffett is showing his identity through art by taking a stand in something he believes in. This piece reminded me of “The Butterfly II” where I am also taking a political stand in something I am passionate about. However, we are going about it in different ways. His drawings are figurative and straight forward. My piece is symbolic and the viewer may or may not come to that conclusion.
Sarah Cain was born in Albany, New York in 1978. This piece is called “synchronized dreaming.” In this piece she used cardboard, plastic, acrylic, gold leaf, prisms, screws and stapes on canvas (Blanton wall text). What drew me to this piece was her use of different materials. It reminded me of my sculpture piece where I interpreted the materials. The cardboard is popping out in some areas making it 3D which reminds me of how dreams can feel real. The splotches of acrylic and gold leaf resemble to me the vivid dreams that I have. The different squares remind me of how I have several different dreams during the night yet they all seem to blend together. The plastic around the exterior of the piece remind me of brain synapses that come together to create this image.
Vincent Valdez was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1977. I chose to include one of his untitled pieces from The Strangest Fruit in this exhibit. Valdez’s life size paintings depict Latino men being hanged. However, you cannot see the noose that is hanging them. He did research on the history of the lynching of Mexican immigrants in Texas. I found this interesting because I do agree that a lot of the minority history in the USA is not talked about because we are ashamed of the past. In this painting the Latino man is dressed contemporary and Valdez said, “Presenting this historical subject in a contemporary context enables me to present the noose as a metaphor and to suggest that the threat of the noose still looms over the head s of young Latino males in American society” (Blanton wall text). Valdez and I both focused on our Latin background in the USA and the unfair treatment towards Latinos in the United States. Valdez referenced a historical event and used human figures to show this unfair treatment. I chose to use symbols and focused on the issue with ICE. I like how you cannot see the noose in his piece. To me by making the noose invisible it adds to the symbolism of the piece by showing the “erased” history of the lynching of Mexican immigrants.
The final piece is by Tavares Strachan. Strachan was born in Nassau, Bahamas in 1979. His piece Panchen Lama from The Constellation Series depicts The Tibetan boy who was named the new Panchen Lama in 1995. When the Dalai Lama chose this boy it would be the boy that would announce the nest Buddhist leader. The boy was kidnaped by the Chinese government along with his parents and they were never seen again. Strachan made this piece from clippings and illustrations he gathered during his trip to Dharamshala, India to learn more about the Panchen Lama. He used universal symbols for violence and peace to create the boy’s face out of these clippings like a constellation of stars. Strachan said he uses light as a means to render these invisible histories visible (Blanton wall text). Strachan and I both chose to use symbols to depict our subject and we both wanted to shed light on an issue that is important to us. However, Strachan chose to use his symbols to create the face of the boy. He also chose to use light to me as a symbol of shedding light on the issue as well as creating a memorial to the boy by making him into a constellation that emits light like a star.
All of these pieces I choose reference historical events, cultural heritage, political issues or a dream. All of these artists’ including me used these references that created the people we are today.
[i] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Who We Are>Overview) https://www.ice.gov/about