Unfinish project to be completed by the next residency

Unfinish project to be completed by the next residency

Monday, August 26, 2013

Response of my mentor to our first meeting

Hola Sonia,

How are you? I hope you're well.

Thank you for inviting me to your studio. It was great to meet you and to see your work up close. I enjoyed listening to you speak about the work and learning about your thinking and the types of connections you're making. It was also interesting to see that you live in such a remote yet beautiful place!

I have a few recommendations of artists for you to look into: 

Look into Pepon Osorio's work, and specifically into his installations and use of materials. There's a great segment on his work on Art21 that you can watch online:http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/pepon-osorio 

Check out this project as well:
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2013/08/pepn_osorios_exhibit_at_ground.html

Pepón Osorio's Where the Me Becomes We
Osorio is best known for multimedia works that combine elements of popular culture, domestic life and performance in order to address political and cultural issues concerning Latino and other immigrant communities in the United States. Moving to New York in 1975, Osorio spent five years as a social worker in the Bronx and, influenced by this experience, became interested in how art can effect social change. Using a visual vocabulary that incorporates the colorful plethora of pop cultural knickknacks associated with a Latino aesthetic of embellishment and decoration, his work points up how issues of race, class, and economy affect the value that we place upon objects and images.

I also think you could gain a lot from investigating the work of Coco Fusco:http://www.cocofusco.com/  She is amazing! 

And the work of Mark Bradford-http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mark-bradford 
Mark Bradford's work often deals with "Memory" and how materials, often discarded, can carry a memory. "Bradford transforms materials scavenged from the street into wall-size collages and installations that respond to the impromptu networks—underground economies, migrant communities, or popular appropriation of abandoned public space—that emerge within a city. Bradford’s videos and map-like, multilayered paper collages refer not only to the organization of streets and buildings in downtown Los Angeles, but also to images of crowds, ranging from civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s to contemporary protests concerning immigration issues."

Also, check out the sculptures and installation work of Doris Salcedo:http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/doris-salcedo

Check out this segment on the work of Carrie Mae Weems-http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/carrie-mae-weems  I think you might find inspiration in her work and may get you thinking more about using photography, video, text/verse, and perhaps even performance.  

I love the Art21 series because we get to hear the artists speak about their work. 

Sonia, I want to invite you to exhibit your work at Mestizo Gallery in October. Let me know if you'd be interested in doing a solo show, and if you think you could be ready by then. The opening reception would be aroundOctober 18th and the show would stay up through November 9th. I could help you curate and install the show.

I look forward to our next visit and seeing how your current projects have progressed. 

Saludos,

Jorge