The artist I choose to do my presentation on is the installation and multimedia artist based out of Texas known as Suzy Gonzalez. I chose Gonzalez' work, specifically the multimedia side of her work, because I felt that her work best emphasizes and represents the decolonization movement that exists in the Chicano art world. Gonzalez' work emphasizes the growing movement to fight against the strong influence that Spanish culture has held over the Latin American community ever since their colonization, choosing to emphasize the Native American roots which are all but forgotten in significant portions of the Latin American world. Her work especially reaches to me because she is also a result of living along a border town with Mexico as I did, and she chooses to illustrate this unique experience through an attempt to decolonize the deeply colonized Mexican culture. She does this through her multimedia art by painting figures which contradict each other on the basis of identity, such as the contradictions that are present for someone who realizes that racism, sexism, or homophobia is inherently wrong but struggles to come to this conclusion because of the deeply Catholic and patriarchal culture that is present in Mexico. Gonzalez's work also focuses on the reclamation of art styles and movements which are typically understood to be European. These include Dadaism and Surrealism, which Gonzalez incorporates into her works that express Chicano identity in order to make the claim that these art styles belong to everyone. Gonzalez is an interesting artist who I hope to learn much from as I continue to investigate her.
No comments:
Post a Comment