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Let me be honest - I have no idea what this piece is about. I don't care. I have absolutely no desire to go deeper into it, to look into the meaning, the reference, the concept. I literally do not care.
This is the city. It is the idea of 'City', the built environment. There's a telephone pole, houses, perhaps ramshackle, perhaps simply abstracted through a haze. It is nothing more. Is that reductionist? Probably. Again, the Art History Babes bring an artist to my attention again, and somehow, magically, it fits in exactly with something else I'm already working on. As I mentioned, I've been looking into Kiro Uehara, the Japanese artist whose work roams between the worlds of Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Surrealism. The latest episode of AHB talked about the wonderful works of Enrico Chagoya, a Mexican-born artist whose works are controversial, and pointed brilliant.
The two have so many interesting intersections that I took immediate notice and started formulating this piece... no mean feat while trying to navigate Bay Area traffic. In Chagoya's work, he works with images that are the blending of traditional imagery, such as pieces referencing Aztec codices and pictograms. These are blended into, or placed side-by-side with, imagery from American popular culture. One work, the one the AHBs focus most heavily on, The Governor's Nightmare, depicts a page from a codex depicting the cannibalization of California Governor Pete Wilson. He also does several other works that use icons of American popular culture such as Superman and Mickie Mouse. This combination of a form that is traditional to Meso-America with things are are instantly seen as 'American' makes for some powerful questioning. For me, the thing that keeps coming up is the power each of the represented symbols. Superman is presented as the most powerful of figures in American comics, but is presented alongside Aztec and other Meso-American figures that seem to loom over Supes, as if they are the superior power, or at the very least share similar powers to Superman. Other works, such as Border Patrol on Acid, are certainly making more easily decoded references to American (and specifically Californian) political stances regarding immigration. The overall pieces have an undeniable air of Surrealism to them. The same can be said of many of the works of Uehara. His early 21st century works, both pencils and collages, are distinctly of a variety of Ernstian style It was his slightly later color works that really brought home the connection. These take aspects of traditional Japanese adverts, of screenpaintings, and a decided Japanese color palette and bring to them elements of western art, The blending speaks not only of the saturation of American and other western imagery that came in with the occupation following World War II, but also the fact that many of the images that are used here pre-date the War, and were created with techniques that were brought ot Japan from the US and Europe over the course of the 19th century, as well as those that originated in Japan, China, and Korea. The effect of all of that is decidedly surrealistic, and when I think of Chagoya's work in relation, I am brought to a place where there is a calling out of Imperialism and post-colonialism, and the fact that it fits in with the Surrealist imagery. I am moved by both in different ways. I am forced to consider my own family ties, one foot each in three different cultures, through Chagoya's works. If ever there was a pairing of Superman images and Aztec iconography, well I cna say for sure my Pops would have been all about it. Recent Abstract Expressionist brush paintings by Japanese artist Kiro Uehara are amazing! I talk a little about why they are a break from the trad AbEx concepts, how they fit right in, and why I love them!
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Your HostChristopher J Garcia - Curator, Fan Writer, Podcaster, and a guy who just loves art. Archives
February 2019
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