February 5, 2002
Subject: AztlanNet: Rosamwil & CyberArte's
CENSORSHIP of llantas & tortillas
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 00:45:21 EST
From: Sedeno7@aol.com
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com, almalopez@earthlink.net, tmnunn@moifa.org, Gmendoza4@aol.com,
happyhermit@earthlink.net, pachuko2001@webtv.net, cecelia@azteca.net
Let me reiterate that I, Pedro Romero, have
never advocated censorship of Alma Lopez's work. My activist work has
been to educate, urging that La Lupe series remain on exhibit, if not
in the Museum, in another appropriate venue, such as an art gallery. Artists
self-censor their own work all the time. That decision was Alma's prerogative.
Rosamwil@aol.com wrote how she ate up the CyberArte
exhibition. Personally, I don't have a computer on an altar in my home
nor have seen one enshrined in a Catholic church. Rosamwil, do you have
a computer placed on an altar? An altar complete with Catholic candles
and a masonite cut-out mantel cloth? Is this representative of your
culture? our culture? I think not. I ask
this because this is exactly what Tey Marianna Nunn installed for the CyberArte
exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, NM, "to
show changes in cultural expression". Why did Nunn commodify these
and other Catholic forms (presenting Alma's prints in a Stations of
the Cross format)?
I think it was to prop relevance to her CyberArte
cliche, to manufacture some context to justify doing this exhibit in a folk
art museum that for years has shown the tradition of Penitente art. The
forms of the chapel Nunn used like we might use Halloween decorations to celebrate
nonsense. To me, Nunn's installation, packaged for museum
viewer consumption, was more an expression of consumer culture than
of what is genuine Chicanoa culture. Our people don't enshrine
computers, we worship a Spirit, not a machine. But then, Chicanoa secularists
might disagree. What do secularists worship, if they do? Isn't
an altar a site for worship?
Tey Marianna Nunn also included a small sign,
installed with the altar, asking viewers to "please feel free to leave
an inventive ofrenda" on her altar. Being an inventive Chicano myself,
I decorated six car tires with paint and crepe paper (probably in urrutia's
favorite colors), and placed them on Nunn's parodistic altar, (yes,
6 llantas on exhibit in the Museum of New Mexico's Museum of International
Folk Art) exercising my right to "freedom of expression" at
Nunn's "please feel free..." invitation. This performance
piece I presented at the Museum, in Santa Fe, NM, May 3, 2001 and
titled it: "The Santa Fe Ofrenda Project", May 3, 2001, Along
with it, I presented a written Artist's Statement to the Museum director
and to the media signed by Pedro Romero Sedeno M.F.A. The statement
examined how my performance art was a cultural intervention, a postModern
expression, designed to challenge and educate the Museum about the tradition
of ofrendas and altarmaking. Thank you Ghandi and Cesar. The performance
piece was filmed by KOAT TV.
I invited the community to collaborate with my performance piece, and probably for the first time in their lives, community members experienced the art of assemblage and prepared their "inventive" ofrendas the Musem had invited us to leave on the Cyber-altar. I urged the ofrendamakers to recycle junk and readymades because the Museum was just going to trash them later anyways, like it did with my llantas. It was Belen Rodriguez, Mexican mother of three and staunch Guadalupana and taxpayer, who brought her ofrenda that included the kotex and also a painted toilet bowl on a dolly. Que mi raza! She was quoted on Univision as saying that if the exhibit showed Alma Lopez has talent, then thru the ofrendas, Belen and other ofrendamakers showed they had talent "tambien".
On May 6, I and the community artists attempted
to exercise our right to free expression, at the invitation of the Museum,
but were blocked by Museum officials and 6 Santa Fe police. This performance
piece, censored by the Museum and enforced by police, was filmed
and aired by Univision TV: I've got videotape of the news clips if u
wanna see 'em. It's hilarious!
Rosamwill, maybe you did not see the small sign
Nunn had installed as part of her CyberArte exhibition, because in mid-May
2001, either Nunn or her supervisor, Joyce Ice MOIFA director, removed
it from Nunn's installation, censoring this portion of the CyberArte
exhibit. Joyce later reported to the Regents of the Museum of New Mexico,
as reported on Alma Lopez's website, that "the interactive component",
i.e. the sign and ofrendas, was eliminated because "community members
were bringing 'inappropriate''" ofrendas. Bad, bad, community artists,
"inappropriate", spank spank . So much for all
the Museum sophistry about "freedom" of expression; they censored
my performance piece, the Santa Fe Ofrenda Project, quick!. sabes como?
Later on, even after the sign was removed, Mejicana Belen and
I went and distributed a dozen corn tortillas as ofrendas on the Cyber-altar,
but they were immediately removed by the Chicana guard. I signed one
and told her to give them to Joyce Ice and Tey Marianna Nunn. Rosamwill,
did Nunn give you a taste of these torts during your visit? I wanted
to get blue corn tortillas but I didn't have time, organizing the ofrendistas,
the media and all (ofendistas?), preparing the performance, all
free of charge by the way. Arriba Nuevo Mejico!
Yes, Rosamwill, let it be known, Tey Marianna
Nunn and Joyce Ice censored her own installation, and because I've got better
things to do with my time, I haven't sued the Museum for violating my
free speech rights, an exercise of which was done at the behest of Nunn and
her rather lame installation. I was thinking of making a copy
of the sign and installing it back on the altar before the end of the exhibition,
a retro-truth-ofrenda, but then, why bother casting pearls? Stay in
the studio and sculpt.
Oh, BTW, the question of identifying one's credentials
is in regards to art criticism, not the production of art, so your point abont
Frida Kahlo and Leonara Carrington is kind of irrelevant. Urrutia, here's
some fodder for your silly rant: I've been wanting to, and have been urged
by friends, to go back to school to get an M.A. (Master of Art) degree,
these degrees focus on art history and art criticism, and can then pursue
a PhD in those subjects. You can't pursue a PhD with an M.F.A.; the
MFA deals with studio work. It would be great to be able to focus and
study on current issues in art and contemporary works, and work and
write, just like the gringos do, to gain and help develop a broader
understanding of art, something urrutia doesn't even have a clue about achieving.
It's my prerogative to include my credentials in art as part of my opinion;
Alma has that prerogative too. Urrutia seems bummed he doesn't.
Rosamwill, do you have any copies of good criticism about Chicanoa art you might be willing to contribute to an ARCHIVE i have proposed be put together?
Thanks, hermana, for your interest in this dialogue. well, back to the studio.....
Subject: AztlanNet: Chicana/o Art & the
Virgen of Guadalupe TWO
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 06:57:43 -0700
From: Alma Lopez <almalopez@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet <AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com>
The Education of Pedro Romero Sedeño:
Chicana/o Art and the Virgen de Guadalupe
Objective: To gain an understanding of Chicana
Art, specifically in relevance to Virgen of Guadalupe.
Requirements: Respect for Chicana/o art production
that reflects the evolution and expansion of Chicana/o identity. Commitment
to tolerance and an openness to learning about a different point of view.
Many of us have academic/institutional degrees like MFAs, but we know the
experience that led to that document does not necessarily reflect what we
know about Chicana/o art. Academic education is incomplete unless supplemented
by self-exploration, community involvement and experience contributing to
a lifetime of learning.TWO: Male Chicano/Mexicanos and the Virgen of Guadalupe
Lesson: Do Chicana more often than Chicano artists
reinterpret the established cultural and religious icon of the Virgen of Guadalupe?
Why? What is the purpose of repeatedly portraying the same image over and
over, void of a personal or social or political interpretation or meaning?
Ehrenberg, Gómez Peña, and Quiroz are examples of male Chicano/Mexicano
artists investigating the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe.
"Focal point of all the hopes and wishes of Mexican Catholics, the core of almost every Mexican hearth (be it in Mexico, the USA, or elsewhere), Guadalupe Tonantzin’s effectiveness is radiated by her very image: an elongated, seedlike, vulva-shaped figure which offers unending possibilities of transformation, its own visual transformation, and as a consequence, its ability to adapt to a peoples changing needs… But of late, la Virgencita Morena has been appearing in guises and stances very different from the norm… Credit for this renaissance must be given to Chicano artists who have in the past twenty-five years featured the revered icon in murals, carvings, and multimedia art… The Chicano’s unabashed use of Guadalupe’s image is, in fact, a new epiphany that deals with self-empowerment." Framing an Icon: Guadalupe and the Artist’s Vision by Felipe Ehrenberg in Ana Castillo’s Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe
"In the late 1970s, I realized that although I was a strong critic of institutionalized Catholicism, whether I liked it or not I was culturally and ethnically a Catholic, and that my (ex-Catholic) agnosticism was merely the other side of the same coin. In other words, five hundred years of Mexican Catholicism couldn’t simply be erased with political awareness… When I began to write poetry and practice performance art, inadvertently Catholic images and ritual ceremonies began to appear in my work… I also discovered that my Chicano colleagues had a very different connection to Guadalupan imagery. They had expropriated it, reactivated it, recontextualized it, and turned it into a symbol of resistance, something that Mexicans have never been able to fully understand. (Progressive Mexican intellectuals still see Chicanos as naive guadalupanos.) In the Chicano movement, la Virgen was no longer the contemplative mestiza Mother of all Mexicans, but a warrior goddess who blessed the cultural and political weapons of activist and artists. She was against racism, the border patrol, the cops, the supremacist politicians. And in the Chicano feminist Olympus, la Guadalupana stood defiant and compassionate as a symbol of female strength, right next to la Malinche, Frida, Sor Juana, and more recently, Selena… She was no longer just standing motionless with praying hands and an aloof gaze. She actually walked; she showed up in demonstrations and strikes, and lent her image for barrio murals, album covers, T-shirts, and political posters. She could even sit down and take a break, abandon temporarily her holy diorama and jog, or let a working-class woman temporarily take her place, as in the artwork of (Yolanda) Lopez. Clearly Chicanos were able to reinvent and activate the icon of la Guadalupe in a way that would be unthinkable in Mexico… I have learned to understand that symbols, no matter how charged they might be, can be emptied out and refilled; that religion in postmodernity is intertwined with pop and mass culture, and that I, as a border citizen, must constantly reinvent my identity using all the elements that my three cultures have provided me with. For this purpose, la Guadalupe has been good to me. She understands my multiple dilemmas and contradictions. " The Two Guadalupes by Guillermo Gómez Peña in Ana Castillo’s Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe
Image: Goddess by Alfred J. Quiroz, 1991, Oil on Canvas, 60" x 84"
Subject: Re: AztlanNet: Rosamwil & CyberArte's
CENSORSHIP of llantas & tortillas
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 08:55:01 -0700
From: Alma Lopez <almalopez@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com, tmnunn@moifa.org, Gmendoza4@aol.com, happyhermit@earthlink.net,
pachuko2001@webtv.net, cecelia@azteca.net
References: 1
Sedeno7@aol.com wrote:
>
> Let me reiterate that I, Pedro Romero, have never advocated censorship
of Alma Lopez's work. My activist work has been to educate, urging that
La Lupe series remain on exhibit, if not in the Museum, in another appropriate
venue, such as an art gallery. Artists self-censor their own work all
the time. That decision was Alma's prerogative.
Pedro, according to you it would be fine if
the "Our Lady" digital print had been on exhibition in a Santa Fe
gallery but not in a museum? Why? Does this apply to your work too? Does this
apply to all Chicana/o Art also? Why shouldn't we be in museums? While in
grad school, did you at all learn about installation art or conceptual art?
The installation in the museum was not meant to mean this is a church... it's
in a museum therefore installations and art need to be looked at in their
context and place. Pedro, you must know some of this stuff since you have
an MFA. A Phd would be excellent.
A person who already has a Phd is Tey Marianna Nunn. She was born in Nuevo Mexico and earned her PhD in Latin American studies from the University of New Mexico in 1998 where she researched New Deal-era Latino artists who had never been recorded nor documented. This research lead to an exhibition titled Sin Nombre: Hispana and Hispano Artists of the New Deal Era at the Museum of International Folk Art, and late last year her book with the same title as the exhibition was published by the University of New Mexico Press. Tey is one of very few museum curators nationally whose activist work involves presenting Chicana/o Latina/o Hispana/o artists.
Subject: AztlanNet: re: Alma Lopez/Pedro Romero
dialogue
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:54:45 EST
From: Sedeno7@aol.com
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com, joeyspouch2004@yahoo.com, Gmendoza4@aol.com,
NAFTAZTC@aol.com
Alma Lopez wrote 2/5/2002 re "requirement"
for understanding Chicana art:. Commitment to tolerance and an openness
to learning about a different point of view.
.In April, 2001, I asked Alma 3 questions at the press conference here in
Santa Fe:
1. Is your "Our Lady" devotional art? A.Lopez
answered No.
2. Would you consider it political art? Ans. Maybe.
3. If political art, then, does it serve a political agenda? No.
4. I attempted to ask you a question about your gender-politics, but
was unable to because you turned your back on me and literally ran away with
Delilah Montoya down the elevator.at MOIFA. I then followed up with an e-mail
to you at almalopez@earthlink,net, inquiring about your work in hope of starting
a personal dialogue. I stated in that e-mail that if you did not want
to take the opportunity to dialogue directly, that I would pose my questions
and analyses thru AztlanNet listserve. You passed up the opportunity,
and subsequently dissed my queries on AztlanNet, stating to the effect that
us in New Mexico weren't as up to-date on the Guadalupano contemporary expression
as y'all out in Califa. Alma, where's your "commitment to learning about
a different point of view'"?
I hope I have shown you, at least, that an artist
in Santa Fe with a little education about art has the brains to question
the artistic merit and intent of your work, and not just naive Catholic laypeople
and clergy concerned about theology (well, cultural identity too.). You
have attempted to evade my analyses for 11 months now; but you have been unable
to dismiss PRSedeno as, per your posting in December 2001, "someone looking
for attention with his "drunken rants"; to which I have responded
that I see this statement as an example of the "Catholic hate" Alma
Lopez finds it politically expedient to whine about. Thanks now
for responding and "educating" me. My response is forthcoming.
Soon come, soon come.
Alma, I initially approached you with respect and professional courtesy, but you did not reciprocate. Finally, now, you take up your responsibility to embrace accountability to the statements you make about your work , a responsibility all of us artists must assume as it comes along with the exercise of "freedom" to create and validate our work. The lesson I want to learn is about Alma Lopez's integrity as an intellectual, and as raza to raza. sabes como?
Subject: Re: AztlanNet: re: Alma Lopez/Pedro
Romero dialogue
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 10:03:39 -0700
From: Alma Lopez <almalopez@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com, joeyspouch2004@yahoo.com, Gmendoza4@aol.com,
NAFTAZTC@aol.com
References: 1
Sedeno7@aol.com wrote:
>
> Alma Lopez wrote 2/5/2002 re "requirement" for understanding
Chicana
> art:. Commitment to tolerance and an openness to learning about
a
> different point of view.
> .In April, 2001, I asked Alma 3 questions at the press conference here
> in Santa Fe:
> 1. Is your "Our Lady" devotional art? A.Lopez
answered No.
> 2. Would you consider it political art? Ans.
Maybe.
> 3. If political art, then, does it serve a political agenda? No.
> 4. I attempted to ask you a question about your gender-politics,
but
> was unable to because you turned your back on me and literally ran
> away with Delilah Montoya down the elevator.at MOIFA.
Pedro, as I recall you chased Delilah and I
down the hall (it was quite funny, actually), demanding to know about my sexuality...
I am not ashamed of any of my identities, including my sexuality... at the
time I didn't think it was relevant nor any of your business.
If you are hurt because I didn't respond to your inquiries, I was busy. I
have a life. I have family, friends, and my work. I can choose to engage in
dialogue or not. I know it's diffucult to tell sometimes, but this is still
somewhat of a free country.
Subject: Re: AztlanNet: re: Alma Lopez/Pedro
Romero dialogue
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 10:13:19 -0700
From: Alma Lopez <almalopez@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
CC: kaytiejohnson@yahoo.com, joeyspouch2004@yahoo.com, Gmendoza4@aol.com,
NAFTAZTC@aol.com
References: 1
Sedeno7@aol.com wrote:
>
> Alma Lopez wrote 2/5/2002 re "requirement" for understanding
Chicana art:. Commitment to tolerance and an openness to learning about
a different point of view.
> .In April, 2001, I asked Alma 3 questions at the press conference here
in Santa Fe:
> 1. Is your "Our Lady" devotional art? A.Lopez
answered No.
"Our Lady" digital print is not devotional art. It is a print on exhibit in a museum. It is not in a church. Is it difficult for you to distinguish between a museum and a church? I'm not asking anyone to pray to this digital print, nor light a candle. Nada like that. Like is usual in museums, all I would expect is for people to look at it for a few seconds before moving on to the next print, or the next gallery, or the next museum.
> 2. Would you consider it political art?
Ans. Maybe.
> 3. If political art, then, does it serve a political agenda? No.
If political, perhaps more in line with Chicana feminist politics, as in the work of Yolanda Lopez, Ester Hernandez, Yreina Cervantez, etc.
> 4. I attempted to ask you a question
about your gender-politics, but was unable to because you turned your back
on me and literally ran away with Delilah Montoya down the elevator.at MOIFA.
Pedro, as I recall you chased Delilah and I down the hall (it was quite funny, actually), demanding to know about my sexuality... I am not ashamed of any of my identities, including my sexuality... at the time I didn't think it was relevant nor any of your business.
Subject: AztlanNet: Re: urrutia's art opinions,
"chapter" 2
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 19:01:27 -0000
From: "jmup2000" <urrutia@hobbes.physics.ucla.edu>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com--- In AztlanNet@y..., Sedeno7@a... wrote:
> urrutia@h... wrote re the Alma Lopez/ Pedro Romero exchange:
>
SNIP...
> Urrutia, feel free to discuss this response:
You "limit" your contributions because you don't know what you are
talking about, urrutia. <
That's an extreme interpretation. But let's say that I don't know how to discuss art in the high-faluting way you insist on doing. What is so wrong with recognizing that and electing not to say anything? In normal circles, that is called "humility," a concept that you appear to be totally ignorant of.>
Duhhhh!
The icon was appropriated and was used outside
the rigid confines of
religious orthodoxy. AND? Any more to your "view", professor? <
Hummm. Do I detect here a resentment to those
with a higher education and festooned with titles? Could it be envidia? But
fret not, my dear ignoramus, I am not a Professor. That is the title brandished
by your buddy, not me. I don't need no stinkin' titles to bury your written
crap (you may make good ceramics, but your writing stinks).
> Let's move on. Yes, you'll have more luck
sticking to your colors theory.
Color theory? What color theory, you dolt? You
are funny, Pedrito...
> p.s. urrutia, You got a lot of nerve calling
my art "shit", as per your posting last week.
I think you mistake me for Romano. He is the
one that asked if having an MFA makes the holder to create fine shit instead
of just plain shit. But yeah, your "Frieda" was shit, although your
ceramic is beautiful.
> As per any discussion of art, you just
show how much you are out of your league. You even admit it. Sorry, your opinions
me valen v..., <
Caray, normally, after a comment like that,
I would have asked you to sit down (and if I have to explain what this means,
you are truly clueless). But this would brand me as the kind of person you
are: afraid of the power of the penis and possibly a homophobic. So, I'll
just let the facts speak for themselves: if you feel compelled to tell me
that, it is clear that my opinions have bothered you. Live with it.
As for me being out of my league, that is obvious: I don't spend my time hustling
commisions in Catholic churches while being a follower of some little green
men.
> You speak like merely the leader of a clique working on next year's yearbook,
that's all. <
Er, you did not have a good time in high school,
did you? You show too much pain in what you write. For the record, I did not
have time to have a good time. I was busy making a living and surviving. Did
not have time to woo the cheerleader nor the student paper editor.
Anyway, you are way too funny, Pedrito. A bit pathetic, but still funny...
So, I'll let you have the last word on this.