DIS/U TOPIA

FUTUROS DEL PASADO Y PRESENTE

EXHIBIT CLOSES FRIDAY, AUG 4 | 6-9PM

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ARTIST STATMENT:

I grew up in the 80’s on movies like Star Wars and Star Trek, books by Philip K. Dick and Asimov and comic books by Marvel and DC. I loved the idea of the technological advancement of humanity and the powerful social and political commentary the works had within them.  I learned that these imaginative worlds of aliens, robots or the distant future lowered one’s defenses, taking sensitive topics and creating a new avenue of discourse, without public backlash. It felt like the farther ahead in time or distance of the world, the easier it was to take in the commentary.
I remember reading 1984 and Brave New World and thinking of the message they held on a totalitarian and capitalistic dystopias. It was easier to think about the situations because it was more of a warning of a world that could be if we did not take care.  Movies like They Live made me think of Reaganomics using an alien invasion. Star Trek made me dream of a world where everyone advanced not though a monetary greed but through scientific and cultural curiosity. All in all, it made me a dreamer, envisioning a benevolent humane world.
It is through these thoughts that I present Dis/U Topia. A glimpse of worlds in parallel, yet as different as can be. Displaying the Distopic world of Angel Cabrales’ It Came from Beyond the Border! A response to
the ever-growing issues in the dehumanization of migrants, the Mexican American Border, immigration and the misconceptions created by political and media rhetoric through a satirical installation in a B-movie, Mexpliotation, Tequila Sci Fi format. Then witness the Utopic world of Angel Cabrales’ the Uncolonized! A utopian world of rich wonders, where the indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere united to form a superpower in the world. A world of Aztechnonauts exploring the heavens, Mayathmaticians unlocking the secrets of the universe through theoretical equations, Olmchemists creating new polymers and alloys to move the world forward and Zapotecknical Engineers building the architecture of the future. It is a vision, not of what could have been, but through multiverse theory is currently happening in another universe!
My work speaks on a part of American Culture that is misconstrued today because of political and media rhetoric, the Mexican American Border, immigration, identity and history. It is through art that I encourage the viewer to research their ancestral backgrounds, empathize with our neighbors, and learn about histories that were not taught in schools or adapted to lionize our country.

 

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