La Lengua Muerta
Sexo Grande by Stephanie Saint Sanchez / Earthwake by Tito-Fabian
Elia Arce missioned me in April 2010 to curate a Latino exhibit. I selected a
group of uprooted and acclimating emerging artists to engage in dialogues
with selected established curators, critics and artists, Surpik Angelini, Elia
Arce, Margarita Cabrera, Aisen Chacin, Ruben Cordova, and Delilah Montoya.
The work for the exhibition was created from these dialogues that both
subversively and romantically embrace Latin classification as
a point of departure to investigate historical and current geography. At the
core of these dialogues lies the need to move beyond traditional categories
of Latin American and Latino Art and to frame new definitions, visual
languages and creative practices among these artists in Houston. La Lengua
Muerta yielded visual and performance works to be as diverse (inform,
subject, aesthetics, and influences) as being Latino.
Participating Artists:
Daniel Adame, Chuy Benitez, Aisen Caro Chacin, Claudia Cruz,Tito-Fabian, Sebastian Forray, Jonatan Lopez, Angel Quesada, Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Alex Soares.
Daniel Adame, Chuy Benitez, Aisen Caro Chacin, Claudia Cruz,Tito-Fabian, Sebastian Forray, Jonatan Lopez, Angel Quesada, Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Alex Soares.
Flor
Installation for La Lengua Muerta, paint 2010.
It began with wanting to fix the deteriorated floor of
labotanica. I wanted to preserve its history, yet add
another layer. The boundaries between the linoleums
and the barren concrete reminded me of the
territorial divisions recorded in maps. In constant flux,
the frontiers of this crumbling linoleum are a record of
their migrations of people, who, in their wanderings,
have unwittingly changed the lines. I decided to
homogenize the identity of the floor by assimilating the
pattern of the dominant (and most recent) linoleum tiles.
I recreated and stretched this identity over the
piso (floor) mestizo with painted lines over the other layers
creating a subtle illusion of continuity. It marked alien
territory as its own, but it didn't erase its history.
Then it became about conquering space and territory.
