I saw this piece last year in Colombia and you could see the armature vibrating beneath it. Was that a mistake?
How exciting that you get to see it again! The vibration is an integral part of the piece and is activated by a motion sensor.
The vibration is meant as an allusion to the erotic, especially in conjunction with the title "Cama," which means bed in English. The presence of the red shroud connects the work to Catholicism, specifically catholic morals, giving the sensual vibrations an air of forbidden sexuality.
Could you tell me a bit about the artist?
Feliza Bursztyn was born in Bogotá in 1933 to Polish Jewish immigrants. She studies art in Bogotá, New York, and Paris. She is known for he sculptures and often includes textiles in her work.
Some of Bursztyn's work, including this one, is meant as political critique against the Colombian church and state.
What do these plaster molds of mouths mean?
This work, "Sorriso do menina" (Girl's Smile), was made in the context of the 21 year Brazilian military dictatorship. It uses a theme that appears a lot in this exhibition—fragmentation of the body. When viewing the work we can reflect on censorship and the silencing of women in particular.
How did this performance work?
This is "Hora y media" (Hour and a half)
by Lourdes Grobet. These photos document a performance that was carried out in an exhibition space that Grobet transformed into a dark room. In this room, the large photographs were developed on paper and displayed. Because she did not include a fixer when developing the photos, they didn't stop developing in light.
This meant that when the lights were turned on in the gallery, in front of the gathered audience, the photographs darkened until the figure disappeared. The performance was a comment on the tentative nature of the visibility of women’s issues at the time.
Is this a critique of the agricultural industry as a whole?
The "Sun Mad" print is a reaction to a specific event, the leaking of pesticides (used to grow grapes) into the artist's community's water supply in 1979.
The artist said of the work, "I wanted this piece to create a dialogue about the new face of farm workers, indigenous peoples from Mexico and Central America."
Thank you so much, Isabella! I'm learning a lot.
Is the ghost-man coming out of the cup a specific individual?
The face represents David Alfaro Siqueiros, a famous Mexican muralist and the artist. Carrasco has shown herself painting over the case file for the whitewashing of his mural, América Tropical, in LA.
He was expelled from Mexico in 1932 for radical political militancy and painted América Tropical during his six months in LA. The symbolic focus of the piece is an indigenous person crucified on a double cross capped by an American eagle, a representation of oppression by U.S. imperialism.
The work was covered over by LA civic leaders for being too radical and critical. Notice how Carrasco has included, here, United States branded "red tape" in the foreground of her painting.
Why is there a door here?
This work is called "Aparato reproductor de la mujer" (Woman’s reproductive system) by Margot Römer. Römer did a series of works where she put together different industrial materials and teased out the relationships between these works and the human body.
This section of the exhibition, Mapping the Body, focuses on how different female artists conceptualized their own bodies and the idea of the female body in relation to place and society.
The door, here, for instance, is a physical object that references the way that metaphorical doors (for example, job opportunities) are closed to many women based on their reproductive systems. Meanwhile, the phallic cactus on the windowsill, a reference to men, is allowed to exist freely in the public realm.
¿Este mural se descubrió en la vieja Mesopotamia, donde ahora es Irak?
Sí, se descubrió en Irak.
Would "Sun Mad" be considered conceptual art?
Sun Mad would not generally be considered Conceptual art. Conceptual art, by definition, is art in which the idea behind the work is more important than the finished art object. It usually refers to art made in the sixties and seventies. This piece uses clear iconographic references and well known visual language to communicate an idea; it would fall in the realm of graphic arts.
I was unsure as the piece was made to critique the use of pesticides to grow grapes in her area.
That is indeed what inspired her to create the piece. Hernandez herself says: "I wanted this piece to create a dialogue about the new face of farm workers, indigenous peoples from Mexico and Central America."
Thank you, that quote is great!
This is so powerful.
The video documents a poetry performance by Victoria Santa Cruz. The work is based on a childhood memory of a group of girls refusing the play with her because of her skin color.
The poem follows Santa Cruz from being ashamed of her race, through accepting it, to rejoicing in it. Santa Cruz's lifelong aim was to awaken the black consciousness and pride in Peru.
