THE ART OF ACTIVISM
A review of the "Smoking Mirrors" Art Exhibit (June 1st. - 27th) By Mark Vallen. www.art-for-a-change.com
Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), opened a show last May that was supposed to probe the role of Artists and Activists in a post September 11th environment. The exhibit, "Democracy When? Activist Strategizing in Los Angeles", had as it's raison d'etre an examination of the intersection of Art and Politics. While the show attracted a number of people, much of the Art was obscure at best.
Despite the well established reputation of LACE, with it's attendant weight and influence, "Democracy When?" was thoroughly outdone by the curatorial efforts of three UCLA Students who organized an Art exhibit titled "Smoking Mirrors." The omnipotent Sorcerer God of the Aztecs, Tezcatlipoca, used a smoking mirror of black obsidian as a tool of divination to reveal all things. Living up to it's namesake, this current exhibition reveals quite a bit.
The June 1st Opening Reception at UCLA'S Kinross Gallery was poorly attended, and the show suffered from flaws that can be attributed to the exhibit being a first time effort, but despite these drawbacks "Smoking Mirrors" delivers considerable punch when it comes to the raw power of the messages presented by the dozen or more Artists. ...[The exhibit] moves to the ARTS IN ACTION Center in the Pico Union district for a final reception party on June 27th, an event not to be missed.
The show includes "up and coming" as well as established Artists. One of the grizzled old veterans whose works are on display is Sergio Hernandez. During the late 1960's when the Chicano movement was flowering, Hernandez worked for "Con Safos", a Chicano cultural/political journal whose name translates into "don't mess with this." He also painted one of the first Chicano murals at UCLA in 1970... so the man has paid his dues. Today, Hernandez continues Painting, but he also pursues his first love... editorial cartoons. With a strong affinity for the downtrodden and the poor, the poison pen of Hernandez lambastes the powerful and the corrupt. His bitter sweet pen drawing, "Cesar Lives" is an almost religious portrayal of the principal figure in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Cesar Ch?vez. But Hernandez also has his eye on the present... his cartoon, "I didn't see a thing!" Shows a blind folded Uncle Sam using a General and an Oil Barron to push Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez off a gang plank.
Not to be outdone in clarity of message is the work of Papo de Asis. This amazing Filipino Artist will tell you that "Art must serve the People", and his incredible Paintings offer no apologies for their decidedly Proletarian politics. His small Oils are jewel like, offering sobering glimpses of a world seized by madness and greed. His large Banners, works created for use in street demonstrations, are unabashed works of propaganda that extol the international struggle against Colonialism. They are enormously colorful works that possess great energy and passion. Papo's Banner, "Stop Imperialist Globalization" is an animation influenced masterpiece where wide-eyed Female heroic guerilla's and their stoic looking Male counterparts, take on and demolish the military machine belonging to some loathsome Fat Cats. Literally... they are mangy Cats.
The works of Cindy Suriyani focus on the realities of Sweat Shop labor and Sexual exploitation. Ms. Suriyani, herself an immigrant from Indonesia, possesses intimate knowledge concerning identity and displacement. She is also adroit at denouncing the stereotypes Asian Women are saddled with. Her wonderful Silkscreen, "I'M NOT THAT!" is a simple drawing of "Oriental" Bar Girls being fondled by U.S. Navy Men. Combined with the exclamatory text of the title, the Artwork is a powerful Feminist critique of White Male arrogance and Imperial power.
Tran Truong also confronts the issue of immigration and displacement. The Artist presents the viewer with an actual life sized boat... or rather, the bare skeleton of one. Instead of wood siding, the body of the boat is made of Human limbs. While the limbs are mere plaster casts, the surreal apparition conveys a nightmarish tale of lives lost at sea while sailing to some unobtainable freedom. Vietnam's "Boat People" easily come to mind, but Truong's dreamlike craft also tells the story of the forgotten Haitian refugees. Perhaps the hapless ship is also a metaphor for all of humanity, cast adrift on a cruel sea.
With a devilish taste for parody, Artist David Dahl Khang offers us a mock board game modeled after "Monopoly." Khang's "Globalopoly" game offers steps with titles like "Falkland Islands - Price, 900 lives." My personal favorite step in the game is the one reading "Die in Jail - Just Disappear."
Lola Scarpitta's naive style Oil Painting, simply titled "icon", is based on the famous Painting by Francisco Goya showing the execution of Spanish patriots by French Troops. Scarpitta replaced the Spanish victims with a single heroic figure, that of Che Guevara... and the French Troops became modern American Soldiers. The figure of Robert Mcnamara stands behind the troops, clutching a rifle and ready to administer the final, fatal shot to Che.
Kajah Jacobs provided a little bit of shock value humor with a giant sculpture of an oversized Billy Club. The lifelike replica of a Policeman's truncheon was mounted on a wall of Artworks focusing on Police abuse... including a Silkscreen Poster of mine titled "Protect and Serve the Rich, Jail the Homeless." The black and white Poster, created in 1987, shows a line of faceless LAPD Riot Cops, with the work's title integrated into the stark design. My image was based on real events. In 1987 I was living in an
Artist's loft in downtown L.A. near Little Tokyo. There were many thousands of homeless people on the streets in the area. An agreement was made between then Mayor Tom
Bradley and LAPD Chief Darryl Gates, to physically remove the homeless population from downtown. The LAPD posted handbills in the community announcing to the
homeless that they had a week to move... those who did not comply would have their properties seized and would be subject to arrest. I witnessed the weeklong Police
sweeps, where the "cardboard condos" of the homeless were razed and what little possessions the inhabitants had were confiscated or destroyed. I created my Poster as an
immediate response, posting it in the community and even distributing copies to the homeless.
"Smoking Mirrors" contains many other Artworks worthy of your attention, and the young organizers of this show should be applauded for pulling together an exhibition of "message Art" at a time when democratic rights are being threatened and reduced.
Art has always played a transformative role in society as it points the way to a world at last inhabitable. It allows us to dream, it informs and inspires, it is spiritual sustenance in a starving world. "Smoking Mirrors" asks of it's audience, and Artists everywhere, to become a part of that transformative process.
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