Week 9: Chicanafuturism

    In Deus ex Machina: Tradition, Technology, and the Chicana Futurist, Catherine S. Ramírez explores the art of Marion C. Martinez at an exhibition in Sante Fe called Cyber Arte. This exhibition features artistic expressions that use computer software and hardware to create traditional images, especially reinterpretations of religious figures known as santos to Mexican and Mexican American Catholics. Martinez’s Oratorio a la Virgencita,

made in 2000, reminds me of Yolanda López’s Virgin de Guadalupe series, because it “illustrates the prominence of the Virgin of Guadalupe in contemporary Chicana art” and how these holy figures represent something different to each individual (147). This piece is Martinez’s personal reflection of the way that the Los Alamos National Laboratory “proletarianized, urbanized, and anglicized” many Hispanos in New Mexico by making them stray from their Mexican culture and build new networks with individuals working in the industrial business. It builds on the New Mexican santo tradition and incorporates unconventional materials to create new representations of social and cultural historical figures. Martinez’s methods are fascinating because they highlight New Mexico’s history as a technological dumping site and embrace the Chicano aesthetic of rasquachismo since she repurposes electronic parts that have been thrown away. 

    In New Mexico, santos carved from aspenwood, cottonwood, or pinewood are a “highly marketed art form” that are displayed throughout churches and homes (153). Growing up, I was always so curious about the two different types of santos, bultos and retablos, because they were all over my uncles and aunts homes but never within my own because my mother had strayed from Catholicism. Surprisingly, I’ve never seen anything like Martinez’s works of art made from recycled computer hardware because my family would only include traditional artworks in their houses so it’s empowering to see female artists taking charge and creating new forms of art.