Current Exhibit
RiM magazine presents...
ALARMA!
new art from Mexico City
featuring:
Marco Arce
Artemio
Fernanda Brunet
Horacio Cadzco
Humberto Dugue
Ruben Ortiz-Torres
Daniela Rossel
Miguel Ventura
Opening Reception; Saturday 1st March, 7-10pm
Gallery hours are Saturday 12-5pm or by appointment.
This show continues until March 29th
RiM magazine presents:
ALARMA!
When I arrived in Mexico September 10, 2001, two of the first words I learned were "naco" and "fresa", two words with several connotations usually derogatory. These two words were originated in an environment where issues of class and taste are constantly challenged, twisted and subverted. The first word, "naco", can mean low class, in bad taste, or cheesy. The guy spending his afternoon whistling at every woman that passes by and calls her "mamasita" (little mama) or "reinita" (little queen) is the classic naco. However, the rich businessman who has photographs plastered in his office shaking hands with the Presidents and politicians is a naco too. The negative associations with kitch, machismo and general tastelessness are often associated with the word "naco."
The word "fresa" literally means strawberry, but to describe a person, place or thing means "yuppie", "preppy", or "stuck up". Certain aspects of the globalization of Mexico City in terms of fashion, cell phones, sushi, and punchis punchis (techno and house music) are considered fresa. People who live, work or play in la Condesa (the Silverlake of Mexico City) or Polanco (the Beverlyhills of Mexico City) are all considered super-fresa. The negative associations with classism, globalization and Americanization are associated with the word "fresa". This is all basic slang to any Mexican, but as a Gringo Japanese outsider, discovering the countless Chilango words such as naco, fresa, and mammon (snob) was quite exciting albeit a little disorienting.
Now here's where things get a little complicated. Someone who has all aversion to things naco may proudly declare "Soy fresa", or a kid who can't stand yuppies, and has a taste for Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling) and Paquita del Barrio (traditional Mexican songstress), long mustaches and cussing may proudly declare "Soy naco, huey." Also it's entirely possible to be "naco-fresa". Celine Dion, , and the Zona Rosa (the Third Street Promenade of Mexico City), are all to varying degrees naco fresa. To use film as an example, Attack of the Killer Tomatos is naco, A Room With a View is fresa, and Titanic is naco-fresa.
Now for some visual artists, being considered fresa is the worst insult that can be directed toward them. It usually means that the work is boring, antisceptic and/or looks like a copy of an American or European counterpart. For others, being considered naco is the worst insult. This means the work is cheesy, dated, overly romantic or just plain bad. Among my colleagues in Mexico City these two words often come into play just as much as the words ironic and sincere do in the States. It isn't quite the official artspeak, but I believe the artists in this current exhibition make a conscious effort in order to avoid making work that is overly fresa, and deal with imagery that is often deliberately "naco" both as critical investigation and celebration, and as a means of thumbing their noses at all that is aesthetically and politically correct as determined by certain cultural institutions.
As the title of the current show I have chosen the name ALARMA! ALARMA! is a magazine published in Mexico City which represents in some sense the crassest and most naco element of journalism, like the National Inquirer or World News in the States. It is a tabloid journal that makes World News seem like the New Yorker. The publication deals with and displays images of the most horrific violence, gratuitous images of mutilated human flesh imaginable, not to mention the prerequisite inclusion of scantily clad women.
I would like to clarify that none of the artists in this exhibition particularly think about the magazine ALARMA! when they make their work. However, I do feel they are responding to certain realities of Mexico City that deal with not only the violence, but the grotesque, erotic and kitsch that in some ways relate to the content of the publication, not only as an ironic posture, but also as a humorous examination of their own environment, not only as a self-reflexive critique, but also as a means of providing sincere aesthetic pleasure in a manner which may be considered the antithesis of so-called "good taste". Furthermore none of the work really utilizes stereotypical "Mexican" imagery (i.e. mariachis, lucha libre). I have excluded work of this nature, because I didn't want the show to be seen as one about Mexico necessarily, but more as an investigation of a certain tendency and dialog in artistic production in Mexico City which perhaps pertains to a more universal human condition. If nothing else, I found and still find these artists' ability to internalize and deal with the inherent dualities within their surroundings truly alarming.
Ichiro Irie
Editor, Rim Magazine
Gallery Hours are 12 - 5pm Saturdays, or by appointment.
Raid Projects
602 Moulton Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tel: 323/ 441-9593
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