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| Laura Llano, Tunas, watercolor, n.d. |
Comadres Artistas
The women based collaborative Comadres Artistas, has been
active in the Sacramento area for over 20 years. These women have contributed
as viable members in the Sacramento Chican@ community by supporting cultural
and feminine values through their artistic production. To celebrate their
achievements, the California Museum organized a retrospective exhibition titled
Más Chisme de la Cultura (More
Gossip of the Culture) that will run until
the thirteenth of November.
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| Irma Barbosa, Comadre Enchilada, 2002 |
Laura Llano’s delicate watercolor Tunas centralizes its subject of the prickly pear fruit to
dedicate a moment of contemplation and appreciation of the iconic plant so well
loved in Mexican cuisine and culture. The nopal takes primary precedent in the creation story of ancient Mexico, where the Aztecs founded their city of Tenochtitlán, guided by the
prophecy of an eagle devouring a serpent upon a cactus. In Tunas, Laura Llano transfigures the revered prickly pear
and its fruit, paying homage to the sustenance and continuity of tradition.
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| Mareia de Socorro, Comadres, n.d. |
Comadre Enchilada, a
“joyful woman [that] might be anyone’s mother” by Irma Barbosa, similarly
invokes the reverence of cuisine and culture. Moreover, Barbosa aggrandizes her
figure beyond the confines of the domestic sphere, into the universal sphere
that is shared by the comadre and
the sun. The comadre’s tortilla
can transpose as a moon, extending the relationship of women in an open public
role. Barbosa repositions women as active forces within their greater
community, pointing to the destabilization of patriarchal expectations and the
aim to empower women.
The intimate composition by Mareia de Socorro compliments
the repositioning and empowerment of feminine spheres and solidarity in Comadres. The tradition of the Catholic baptism prompts for
the selection of god-parents which helps extend the nuclear family. Socorro
uses brilliant color to emphasis emotive auras that bond the figures (bringing
to mind the work of Marc Chagall), utilizing ritual tools such as the baptismal
water, candle, and bible, as elements to narrate and enhance the communion. Comadres exemplifies in visual form many of the fundamental
values sustained in the impressive trajectory of the Comadres Artistas.
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| Dave Andre, Installation, ceramics, 2011 |
CAST
The Center for Contemporary Art organized their sixth annual Capitol Artists’ Studio Tour which featured
more than 150 artists and involved a number of spaces on and off the grid, offering an opportunity to experience the diversity of artistic approaches in
the area.
Towards the south end of Sacramento, one can find Panama Pottery, a dynamic space that produces commercial ceramics interwoven with
professional art studios of an eclectic kind. Surrounded by massive retired
kilns, the communal space houses a range of disciplines from woodwork,
ceramics, even painting. The constructions by Randall Won engage a variety of
media, from ceramic to cardboard, challenging the textural and dimensional
capacity of his supports. In contrast, Dave Andre produces serial motifs of
pigs and doll heads that are altered and at times arranged in conceptual
situations. To circumvent the numerous pre-established associations with the
figure of a pig, Andre manipulates features and plays up distinct attributes to
create differentiation. In one setting, the placement of plump little piggys in
formation, are pressured by large piggy-banks that usher them towards their
doom. The loaded image makes available for a number of readings to an assuming
public.
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| Aleksander Bohnak, You can't see everything (with your back turned), multi-media installation, 2011 |
At Verge Center for the Arts, Aleksander Bohnak’s
installation You can’t see everything (with your back turned) appeared chaotic, even with the encouraging sign,
almost pleading: “Feel free to enter!” still left doubt to proceed. The narrow
walkway with wooden boards and multicolor tape protruding from various
directions looked more like an obstacle course with potential liability. Even
upon entering, the configuration did not get any clearer, only the eerie
feeling of being recorded by the video camera at the other end. Live feed of
the participant was actually being projected on a screen opposite the entrance.
The camera is staged to capture the only viewpoint of the structural framework
carefully composed by the artist and designed to accentuate the unsuspecting
viewer. Where the participant sees chaos, the artist created order. The
free-floating experience can be exhilarating in the viewer’s exploration of
space and intention, however, Bohnak reserves the revelation of his design
until the viewer turns to exit and finds themselves candidly within the
fixating frame. Immediately, awareness of bodily perception is triggered, causing
an ambivalent response between disturbance and delight towards the directed
staging of theatrics. The installation was a refreshing alternative in
Sacramento’s art scene.
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| You can't see everything (with your back turned) (detail) |
