Exhibits are both education and art. We can think of them from multiple perspectives...By generating...relationships among disparate things and ideas, metaphor expands our understanding.
The first time I saw this, from a distance, I thought a bunch of trash bags had somehow gotten caught in a tree! In some parts of Europe trash bags are about that shade of green, and the glass “baubles” are about the same size and shape as a trash bag caught from the wind in a tree.
"You don't want to be spending six hours at a museum, you want to do other sightseeing."
Speak for yourself, lady. I love museums. Depending on which one you're talking about, six hours may not be long enough.
The Museum of Contempory Art, San Diego, is currently holding a retrospective of work by John Valadez. A California native, Valadez work is considered among the most important and influential work that reflects the Chicano movement of the 70's, 80's and 90's. The exhibition presents a broad swatch of Valadez work, from his early street photographic portraiture, to his symbolic and (more recently) surrealistic compositions in pastel. The museum describes his work as going "beyond the limits of cultural identity… (making) familiar the unfamiliar—whether dreams and fantasies, or the cultural identity of others." This, I found myself identifying with almost immediately, and saw the universal nature of most of his work.
Anyone living in Southern California for any length of time is likely familiar with the weather condition known as the Santa Ana Winds, or simply "the Santa Ana's." Living for the last four years near the coastla region of San Diego, it's the first time I've ever not experienced the brutally hot, dry San Ana winds that tend to stir in September and October of every year. The winds don't make it this far to the coast, but for most of the rest of Southern California, and for all my life up until recently, these winds have been an familiar part of what it means to live here. The winds originate over the dry, hot deserts to the east. Weather conditions bring them west, and as they move over the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountain ranges, the winds descend quickly, gaining speed, and the compression increasing their heat. For most of my life, these winds would come every year, and were never welcome. Like many Americans feel about Mexican immigrants, I preferred the hot, dry Santa Ana winds stayed where they seemed to belong, in the hot, inhospitable desert, but come every year they did. At best, they would clear out the smog for a day or two, leaving us brilliantly crystal clear skies from morning to night, a rarity in Southern California. At worst, they would fill the skies with menacing brown dust and dirt, and drive uncontrollable wildfires in the mountains and outlying communities of Southern California, causing frightening destruction, death and disruption. Yes, "Santa Ana Condition" was an appropriate title for the exhibition.
In his large oil painting on display in the entry of the exhibition, "Pool Party, 1986" we see a hillside wildfire burning out of control, just beyond two young women seemingly oblivious to the impending doom. Their backs are turned on the fire in the background, with one looking at the viewer, dressed for late summer, aiming her garden hose, stewing water, into the already full pool. The other young lady is in a swimsuit, busy washing the dog. The description read "Authentic and unlikely, Valadez's scene adapts elements of wind, water and fire into an ominous domestic vision—where the comforts of a regular life are framed by peril and portent." The symbolism thick and obvious is punctuated by the grin displayed by the main figure. I personally have experienced three major wildfires living in Southern California. For me, this work was powerful and personal. And in it, familiar themes are depicted that appear throughout much of Valadez work… the elements of fire, water, wind and earth, and symbolism, often depicting things we pretend, refuse or simply fail to see.
Much of Valadez work engages religious and cultural realities, assumptions, bias's and clashes. "Battle of Culture", 1987, were influenced by Valadez' trips through Spain and France, the old masters and common human narrative of conflict. Both "Battle of Culture" and "Fall of Babel" are described as "conjuring up allegorical references to the dichotomies of colonialism, and reflect the conflicting duality between myths and narratives of the past and present, particularly in the context of the Mexican American discourse." The emotion and violence of these works serve it's message well.
In "Sea Monsters and Freight," 2007, the symbolism is thick, as we see a man fighting with a mythical sea monster in the shallow surf in the foreground, as a huge freighter passes in the distance. The painting is described as underscoring the dichotomy of what is above-board, visible and knowable, and what lurks below (either real of perceived). The execution of the huge pastel itself is at the same time arresting and familiar, while also a bit off-putting to me, after all who has ever gone to play in the ocean and not wondered, even a little, if there's some huge creature lurking below?
Perhaps most impactful for me was a series, two of which were shown in this exhibition, "Gingerbread," 2000 and "Dulces," 1999. These works depict a common ideal in lowrider culture, the car show. Living in Southern California, I grew up with these car shows, and their ridiculously modified cars and sexy women depicted on the covers of magazines at every drug store and grocery store. In this series, Valadez uses these events, a familiar reality in Chicano culture, to depict the common human realities of pride, power and sexuality. In both paintings, a couple of depicted, posing for a supposed photographer who's out of the frame. A scantily clad woman poses suggestively with a young or ill-shapen young man. Trophies to show of to their friends, these photo are of women who are props for hire, paid to pose that way for the photo, a false depiction of an ideal that doesn't really exist. In this painting Valadez does something common throughout much of his work, using cultural contexts familiar to him (and anyone growing up around this culture) to depict human realities common to us all. In this, I find Valadez' work most important and gripping.
As so often is the case in San Diego, I was one of the few at the museum that day enjoying Santa Ana Condition. Unlike other centers for art around the world, San Diegans simply aren't that into art, or the value it brings to helping us understand and engage truths about the human condition. I knew that if this same exhibition were at MOMA in Manhattan, I would be jostling for position just to see these works. At the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla though, I nearly has the place to myself. Quiet, serene and perfect for personal viewing, I once again felt a loss for our city and it's people, knowing they were most likely watching a Padre game or a Charger re-run, and wondered, how might Valadez paint that?
