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angelicamuroinfo · 8 years ago

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Chafismo: An Introduction to New forms of Art Post-Rasquachismo

Curatorial Statement by Angelica Muro & Dionicio Mendoza

This exhibition re-examines social based-phantom culture by sampling and appropriating sources linked to both high and low culture through the use of materials that convey socio-economic and political factors including class, race, gender, and sexuality. Chafismo highlights work that expands the current dialogue surrounding the complexity within Chicanx art practices. This often means artists giving a critical voice to theoretical paradigms that frame arte y cultura as issues that should be expanding our understanding of positionality, value, and worth. Chafismo, a new approach and visual language, questions established tenets by probing the conventionality of what is considered broken, irreverent, or complacent.

Chafismo is an open-ended term that comes from the word chafa, which literally means cheap or worth more than it costs. Chafismo is an extension of Rasquachismo—an artform associated with the Chicano Art Movement, which made the most from the least, and was both defiant and inventive—its aesthetic expression comes from discards, fragments, and even recycled everyday materials. In Chafismo, the same applies, but new conceptual frameworks have moved us towards a new art term that emphasizes Chicano artist practices as disregarded. Chafismo embaces the cultural iconography that is fundamentally rooted in an oppressed and marginalized identity by questioning the validity of the movement of Latin-American art and culture that needs to apply a more fluid and globalized cultural identity. This exhibition features works by Sita Bhaumik, Felix D’eon, Karla Diaz, Monique Islam, Prole Arts Collective (Nosfe and Rarotonga), Isaías D. Rodríguez, and Arnoldo Vargas.

As a gay, Mexican-American man, Felix D’eon has a particular affinity for Latino subjects that represent his own queer community and other marginalized groups. The Mexican game of "Lotería" is familiar to all Mexican and Chicano households. The original Lotería images have an iconic power, like cards in a tarot deck. However, like all such works of vintage popular art, they are heteronormative, and have a racist ideology at their core. In D’eon’s Loteria series, he has taken the aesthetic, visual, and emotional power of the original deck, and harnessed it into a contemporary, queer sensibility, thereby expanding the meaning of the Lotería, and giving it to an audience previously excluded from it.

Muxe Ne Nadxii, portrays a young man and his Muxe lover. Among the Zapotecs, an indigenous tribe from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Southern Mexico there exists three genders; men, women, and Muxes. A Muxe is usually biologically male, but because he does not identify as male, he is assigned the third gender– usually at a very young age. Muxes usually wear female garb, and take on female-gendered tasks, such as embroidery or selling in the market.

In Mi Cholito Hasta la Muerte, we see a contemporary couple in a loving embrace. Through various signifiers, such as tattoos, red and blue headgear, and wife beater undershirt, D’eon speaks to hip hop culture, rival sensibilities, and hyper masculinity.

Karla Diaz’s Prison Gourmet is a multi-media installation that includes performance, video, and a book that features prison commissary food recipes. The piece was originally conceived as a two-hour performance for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and inspired by Diaz’s brother who was in prison. Thru Prison Gourmet, Diaz is interested in exploring food politics, and issues that relate to prison food such as memory, freedom, race, culture, and survival.

Monique Islam explores various themes including identity, family, home, and memory. In her series, Mujeres (Women), the artist reflects on her self-worth as a mujer de color (woman of color) by photographing women in her life in a pointed manner that suggest confidence and independence through an honest and intimate approach. Momentos Divinos are about the physical preservation of memory through daily explorations and interactions with people and everyday objects. Islam’s eye gravitates toward small moments in time, which would otherwise go unnoticed and eventually forgotten.

Nosfe X is a “Sociologo Cultural” (Cultural Sociologist) who uses his artistic practice as a conduit to agitate and encourage dialog on topics of race, politics and identity. Nosfe is a member of PAZ (Prole Arts Zindicate), a recently founded artist collective. PAZ’s main goals are to encourage and promote social justice as well as create and foster creative outlets in the form of group exhibition and professional-practice workshops aimed to mentor under-represented artists. Nosfe X’s text-based artworks utilize a quotidian lexicon. For example, 2P2AC2 is only effective if read in Spanish, and references our short-hand, texting-based language as a coded dialect that is meant to be vulgar, and specific to a proletariat class that is subjected to systematic oppression, inequality, and an imposed social identity.

RAROTONGA, also from Tijuana, Mexico, appropriated her name from a mighty, powerful, strong comic book character from the 1980’s. She originates from Guadalajara Mexico, and is the daughter of a Mexican father and a Filipino mother. Rarotonga’s work explores the fluidity and intersectionality of identity, race, social class, and gender. Her art practicum includes mixed-media sculpture and video. Her installation titled Couple references an inter-racial relationship. The text in this work reads Blackxican (Black and Mexican) and Mexipino (Mexican and Filipino). The letters are made of wood with a tortilla coating that references domesticity and cross-cultural food staples. In Witness, RAROTONGA planted a cacti boarder between Tijuana and San Isidro, Ca. This action included the carving of faces on the cacti as an act of reclamation about land, territory, witness, and allegory.

The work of Isaías Rodriguez and Sita Bhaumik includes the traditional materials used to fabricate piñatas (ephemeral sculptures that are intended for ritual celebration, special occasions, and that end in a ceremony of destruction). Rodriguez’s Piñata Cart contains scaled-down versions of luchador mascaras (wrestling masks), unicorns, and burros (donkeys). This commonly used iconography conjures childhood memory. The little piñatas displayed here are fetishized, and become keepsakes that take on permanence and value of one’s cultural identity. Similarly, Trump Wall is small scale maquette that uses piñata materials to reference obliteration in relation to Donald Trump’s proposed building of an “impenetrable” border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The proposed height of this wall is up to 65 feet tall. This scale model represents a 55-foot wall in relation to the U.S. president’s 6’2” height.

The work of Arnoldo Vargas features nine years of examination surrounding subversive applications of freedom evident through the creation of street side memorials. In Memoriam II is an ongoing site specific project that predates the black lives matter movement. Vargas purposely considered two memorial sites that were created in response to fatalities resulting from officer involved shootings in his community of Wilmington, California. This relational installation is comprised of site-specific photography, video, and performance in honor of two male community members that were fatally shot within a three-week span and five blocks from each other. This installation considers perception, persecution, and a city sanctioned gang injunction through the use of cartography--allowing ideas to be expressed and visualized through a rhizomatic mapping process. The underground sprout of a rhizome does not have a traditional root. There is a stem there, the oldest part of which dies off while simultaneously rejuvenating itself at the tip. The new relations generated via rhizomatic connections are not copies, but each and every time a new map. In Memoriam II and Officer involved Shooting are figuratively and literally rooted in our impulse to archive, collect and accumulate information that absorbs a time, a place, and a memorial.

Vargas’ With Flare series poetically depicts the contrast between community and industry as it co-exists in Wilmington, Ca. Wilmington is the only city in the world that is surrounded by 5 major oil refineries. Each photograph depicts the flare of the oil refineries as an ecosystem of the neighboring community. Flares are a byproduct of oil production, and occur when the plant malfunctions. Although illegal and punishable through minimal fines, the flaring and its toxic effects are hazards that the community endures through a strange symbiotic existence.

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to Araceli Mejia, members of GazOstrich Lodge 656 (Tamara Alvarado and Fred Salas), and the Visual and Public Art department for their support of this exhibition.

Angelica Muro is Assistant Professor of Integrated Media and Photography in the Visual and and Public Art Department at California State University, Monterey Bay. Muro teaches replicative media, which includes photography, digital art, and media analysis courses. Recent curatorial projects include Chafismo: an introduction to new artforms Post-Rasquachismo and Caprichos Anatomicos at Works/San Jose and Club Lido: Wild Eyes and Occasional Dreams at Empire Seven Studios. Recent exhibitions of her artwork include Photo ID, Santa Cruz Museum of Art, Chico & Chang: A Look at the Impact of Latino and Asian Cultures on California's Visual Landscape, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Chica\Chic: La Nueva Onda/The New Wave of Chicana Art, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, You’re Breathing in It: Exploring the Studio and Alternative Art Strategies, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, Domestic Disobedience, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA, and Better to Die on My Feet, Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA. She is the recipient of the Herringer Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Art and the Trefethen Merit Award. Muro’s curatorial projects have been awarded grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation through the Creative Capacity Fund, the James Irvine Foundation for Intersections, and Adobe Youth Voices.

Hector Dionicio Mendoza was born in Uruapan, Michoacan Mexico. He and his family relocated to the agricultural community of King City California in the mid-eighties. His professional development includes a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland CA where he was awarded the Presidents fellowship which constitutes a full tuition scholarship. After he completed his Bachelor’s degree, Dio was invited to several artist in residence programs and exhibitions in Europe, including Kust Futur in Switzerland 2000, The Bossard Project in Berlin 2001, Casa Santos in Barcelona 2002, and The Putney Arts Center in London 2003. Dionicio’s awards include the Eureka Fellowship 2004 in California, Kunst Now 2005 in Berlin, and Eco-Conciente 2007 in Mexico City. In 2009 he received his MFA in Art from Yale University. Most recently he was awarded an artist’s residency at the prestigious Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California. He currently lives in Oakland and is an Assistant Professor in the Visual and Public Art Department. Mendoza teaches studio courses in sculpture, painting, and screen printing.

#workssanjose #Chafismo

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visualandpublicart · 4 years ago

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Students can register with their school account and use the code STUDENT to get free access to the event.

Join Virtual MMA for a live conversation with artists Amy Díaz-Infante and Angelica Muro on April 8th at 4 PM, as they share insights about their creative practices and their personal journeys as artists and educators. In our dialogue with Amy and Angelica we will explore their experiences teaching, leading, and creating and discuss how to advance equity in the art world and museums.

Amy Díaz-Infante is a visual artist living and working in San Francisco. Díaz-Infante is a full-time faculty member in Printmaking, Drawing, and Design at the City College of San Francisco. She holds a BA in Art from Yale University, an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Collegiate Teaching Certificate from Brown University. She has exhibited nationally and within México and is an alumna of the Djerassi Resident Artist Program. Community engagement has been a key component of her arts practice; and as an educator and administrator, she has been active in the fields of youth arts and youth leadership development.

Angelica Muro holds an MFA degree from Mills College and a BA in Photography from San Jose State University. Recent exhibitions include Photo ID, Santa Cruz Museum of Art; Chico & Chang: A Look at the Impact of Latino and Asian Cultures on California’s Visual Landscape, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Chica\Chic: La Nueva Onda/The New Wave of Chicana Art, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA; You’re Breathing in It: Exploring the Studio and Alternative Art Strategies, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA; Domestic Disobedience, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego, CA; Better to Die on My Feet, Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA; and FiveXFive: Artist, Writers & Social Justice, Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX. She is the recipient of the Herringer Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Art, the Trefethen Merit Award, and the Champion of the Arts Award, Arts Council for Monterey County. Muro’s curatorial projects have been awarded grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation through the Creative Capacity Fund, the James Irvine Foundation for Intersections: Adobe Youth Voices, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Robert and Florence Slinger Fund, Community Foundation for Monterey County, and the Walter and Elise Creative Work Fund. These projects include Public Space, Space 47 Projects, Chafismo: New Artforms of Art Post-Raquachismo, and Yo Soy Chinatown/I Am Chinatown: Cultural Revitalization and Urban Public Space. Muro is Principal and co-founder of Public Space/Chinatown, Director of the Visual and Public Art Gallery @ CSUMB, and Chair and Associate Professor of Integrated Media and Photography in the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University, Monterey Bay. Muro teaches photography, media analysis courses, and community engaged practices.

https://montereyart.org/event/two-journeys-a-conversation

Zoom link will be sent to participants by email on Wednesday, April 7, please contact [email protected] with any questions.

General Public $15

Members $10 with discount code MEMBER (memberships will be checked upon registration)

MMA is committed to making our programs accessible to all regardless of ability to pay. If you would like to attend but require special accommodation, please email [email protected] for a special code.

Image: Angelica Muro, Agricultural Workers in Gucci (from EPA: Guide for Agricultural Workers), 2007-2017, mixed media on archival pigment prints, triptych (one of three panels)

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tarpanquanhica · 12 years ago

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Chafismo Ilustre Conmemorativo...

- SANTOS MACARRONES!!

porque esos niños han de vivir en la cueva de cochayullos?

* y por que no?

- pues porque enfermarán

* no no no, ahi te equivocas, ya están enfermos, por lo que no pueden enfermar

- y si no enferman, se convertirán en peces - dijo sin escuchar lo anterior

* oh, es probable, míra, la niña ya tiene cara de merluza

- no, ella siempre a sido así

* en ese caso, ella siempre fue un pez

- no lo creo, pues la he visto comer carne, y los peces no comen carne

* oh no amigo mío, no lo hacen

- aunque tal vez estába destinada a ser un pez

* muy observador amigo mío, muy observador, en efecto es una posibilidad

- en efecto!

* sí, en efecto!

- y a propósito de nada, que hora es?

* déjame ver, oh, son las 2 horas de retraso que no deberiamos tener

- recorcholis!!, entonces, debemos de apurar el paso!!

* y, amigo mío? que harémos con estos niños? los ayudaremos?

- claro que si, y como no hacerlo? cultivaremos más cochayullos para ellos

* Ciertamente eso harémos

- claro, hay que ayudar a los desamparádos

* oh! Tu amabilidad me conmueve el higado

- no empieces, que sabes que soy de noble pulmón

* lo sé querido amigo, eh ahí el por que de mi estima

- bueno, basta de palabrerías, y pongámonos en marcha

* SANTOS JAMÓNES!!

- qué ocurre??!!

* se me olvidaron las salchichas!

- oh! santos lirónes! y que haremos?

* ir a por ellas!!

- pero debemos de darnos prisa!

* si, PRISA!!

* por allí se fueron, nos deben de llevar 1 kilómetro de distancia

- JAJA yo fui campeón en la gran carrera del sartén colérico!!

* oh, si!, recuerdo ese evento, fue… c-conmovedor!!

- no me lo recuerdes, que me sonrojo… A POR ELLAS!!

* A POR ELLAAAS!!!!

#chafismo #tarpanqüañicá #Seuratico™

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angelicamuroinfo · 8 years ago

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Curator’s talk and closing reception with exhibit curators Angelica Muro & Dionicio Mendoza. Talk moderated by Joe Miller.

Link

#Chafismo #WorksSJ

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angelicamuroinfo · 8 years ago

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Opening Reception for Chafismo: An Introduction to New forms of Art Post-Rasquachismo at Works/San Jose

A second chance First Friday Reception: Friday, March 3, 2017, 7-10pm

Talk with Curators: Saturday, March 11, 2017, 5pm. Moderated by Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains

#workssanjose #AngelicaMuro #DionicioMendoza #Chafismo #SitaBhaumik #FelixDeon #KarlaDiaz #MoniqueIslam #ProleArtsCollective #Nosfe #Rarotonga #IsaiasDRodriguez #ArnoldoVargas

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angelicamuroinfo · 4 years ago

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Two Journeys: A Conversation with Amy Díaz-Infante and Angelica Muro

Date: April 8, 2021 | Time: 4:00 – 5:15 pm

www.amydiaz-infante.com/

www.angelicamuro.com

Zoom link will be sent to participants by email on Wednesday, April 7, please contact [email protected] with any questions.

General Public $15

Members $10 with discount code MEMBER (memberships will be checked upon registration)

Image: Angelica Muro, Agricultural Workers in Gucci (from EPA: Guide for Agricultural Workers), 2007-2017, mixed media on archival pigment prints, triptych (one of three panels)

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