'Phantom Sightings' Explores Social Injustice Through the Avant-Garde
The new LACMA exhibit uses an eclectic mix of media to explore the lives of Chicanos in an amusing way.
Clare Sayas
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Lifestyle
A wall is swathed in glossy black and white and shades of gray.
It is a little fuzzy, but visible: A crowd has gathered around a looming, thick tree with nothing hanging from the branches; a gaping, dark hole fills the middle of the wall, burning uncomfortably at the absence of the hanged corpse that should be there.
The image, titled "Erased Lynchings" by Ken Gonzalez-Day, is a retouched photograph from the little known Mexican lynchings of the Jim Crow era, one of many provocative pieces in "Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement," which runs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until Sept. 1.
A refreshing collection of mixed pieces produced after the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s by artists of Mexican descent, "Phantom Sightings" connects its pieces through a conceptual framework.
The focus lies in the methods and different messages of the artwork and not in the themes of race or social statements. This creates an exhibition with varied media, style and context that informs, amuses and protests all at the same time.
The large exhibition can have a dizzying quality about it. Flashing colors dance on the walls on top of tempera paint, mixed media shining and shouting loudly from a projector.
Within the texture and changing colors, one can easily lose her way - sometimes, there just does not seem to be a point to the avant-garde.
Jason Villegas' "Celestial Situations" features a mural with an incomprehensible mix of machines and brand names that frame a central television showing the projected image of a rotund, balding man touching himself to the screeching soundtrack of television feedback.
One could easily surmise the symbolism of Villegas' statement about the hybridized nature of consumerism and industry. But the garish method of the message seems redundant.
The spectacle continues throughout the show, but the pieces with the relevant social commentary stand out strongly.
It is a little fuzzy, but visible: A crowd has gathered around a looming, thick tree with nothing hanging from the branches; a gaping, dark hole fills the middle of the wall, burning uncomfortably at the absence of the hanged corpse that should be there.
The image, titled "Erased Lynchings" by Ken Gonzalez-Day, is a retouched photograph from the little known Mexican lynchings of the Jim Crow era, one of many provocative pieces in "Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement," which runs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until Sept. 1.
A refreshing collection of mixed pieces produced after the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s by artists of Mexican descent, "Phantom Sightings" connects its pieces through a conceptual framework.
The focus lies in the methods and different messages of the artwork and not in the themes of race or social statements. This creates an exhibition with varied media, style and context that informs, amuses and protests all at the same time.
The large exhibition can have a dizzying quality about it. Flashing colors dance on the walls on top of tempera paint, mixed media shining and shouting loudly from a projector.
Within the texture and changing colors, one can easily lose her way - sometimes, there just does not seem to be a point to the avant-garde.
Jason Villegas' "Celestial Situations" features a mural with an incomprehensible mix of machines and brand names that frame a central television showing the projected image of a rotund, balding man touching himself to the screeching soundtrack of television feedback.
One could easily surmise the symbolism of Villegas' statement about the hybridized nature of consumerism and industry. But the garish method of the message seems redundant.
The spectacle continues throughout the show, but the pieces with the relevant social commentary stand out strongly.
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