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| Pedro Meyer: detail from Batman and the Religious Procession (1991). A religious parade in
Oaxaca |
Something quite surprising lurks amid the sculpture
and visual art showcased by the National Museum of Mexican
Art in Chicago: the repeated incorporation of science fiction and fantasy
themes. The museum has a rich collection, worth returning to several times, but
on my first visit this weekend I was struck by the willingness of Mexican and
Mexican-American artists to use sci-fi and fantasy motifs in serious pieces.
And yet, there was something unflinchingly playful about how these were
wielded.
Why is there this ease with a cosmic vocabulary or
fantastic backdrop when interpreting or reinterpreting daily life? As you can
see from the pictures below (taken on an old smart-phone, sorry), the use of
sci-fi and fantasy is quite self-conscious--but without being cynically ironic
in a hipster way or overly precious and kitsch. I love the mixture of play,
earnestness, and satire.
I have two theories.
 |
| Ignacio Montano: details
from Assembling Energy Panels from the
London Complex at Preference, Mars/Montando paneles solares del complejo de
Londres de preferencia, Marte (1990). Floating astronauts with oxygen-packs
at the Mars base—Just to be clear, this hasn’t happened, yet. |
The Cosmic Race (la
raza cósmica)
Deeply embedded in national imagery in Mexico is the
concept of the "Cosmic Race." This is the idea, famously stated by
Mexican statesman and philosopher José Vasconcelos in 1925, that the mix of
European, Native American, and African races and cultures in Mexico would be
the way of the future. He called this mixture la raza cósmica.
Now, I'm not claiming that the artists below ascribe
to any of that. MY POINT IS THAT THE USE
OF THE OTHERWORLDLY IS MAINSTREAM. This is not (merely) the domain of nerds
and geeks.
 |
| Alfredo Arreguin: Ballads
from My Land/Corridos de mi tierra (2004). Emiliano Zapata and the Virgin
de Guadalupe, as well as other iconic figures of Mexican history and legend
fill the night sky. |
Reverse
Gravity
Or, put more simply, satire. There’s something of
satire in these appropriations of images originally created in the U.S. By
treating Batman and Mars and the infamous sexy Green Ladies from Star Trek as
supremely serious (when all involved are aware that there’s something playful
about them), a critical inversion takes place. The somberness, the gravity of
these incorporations veers towards the ridiculous, the way someone donning a
top hat and tails (in a non-ironic way) to purchase stamps at a post office
would strike us as entirely ridiculous. (Or the way this scene in Tombstone is the best ever.) And perhaps that’s the point.
Maybe by treating sci-fi and fantasy imagery as real,
these artists (and I’m counting the young boy carrying the Batman saint as an
artist) are, through gentle (and admiring) ridicule, taking the self-important
cultural production of the U.S. down a notch. This is especially poignant given
how the highly-problematic term “alien” is used by some people to describe
things (and people) Mexican.
 |
| Pedro Meyer: Batman and the Religious Procession
(1991) |
 |
| Ignacio Montano: Assembling Energy Panels from the London
Complex at Preference, Mars/Montando paneles solares del complejo de Londres de
preferencia, Marte (1990). |
