"JESUS MACARENA-AVILA"
opening Friday, January 9, 2004 from 6pm-10pm
January 9 - February 6, 2004

"Macarena-Avila concerns himself here with the racial and cultural 'melting pot' of the American Metropolis. He has created a body of work with bubble-wrap and other plastic, commonly used to protect artwork in transit. Exploring his personal mixed-race identity, Macarena-Avila explores the schism between equal rights and equal opportunity." -- Sean O'Toole, editor, Art Throb: Contemporary Art in South Africa

" To Macarena-Avila skin is a site for social and political discourse where culture is not an un-individuated alloy but a sturdy sheath composed of delicate and innumerable individuals."-- Michael Rooks, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago


“ As for my blood line, my ancestral lineages goes to Haustecas (indigenous people in Central Mexico), European settlers and West African slaves. During my stay in Cape Town, I began to notice the physical and cultural similarities of Cape Town mixed-blood people. I learnt that mixed blood people in Cape Town area are referred as "Coloured" but I also know that in certain coastal parts of Africa mixed blooded people were called ‘mestizos’.”

Last summer of 2003, these words described my cultural experience in South Africa which continues to make me think about the idea of ancestral origins. I wrote them down for the exhibition statement for my show with Greatmore Studios (Cape Town South Africa). Not to go into “poststructuralist” rhetoric, these two particular installation works for this show, "Yellow: Wilted Identity" and "My Parents: Inframundo" with Polvo Art Studio were inspired and influenced from my South African experience.

The installation works stemming from my ongoing series "Invisible Flesh" which deals with racism and identity politics. With this exhibit, my interest lies within the colonial history of the Americas. In colonial Latin American history, the development of the race and class system in Mexico was infamous for the “castas” paintings which depicted the mixing of bloodlines or “mestizaje”. They vividly depicted the development of race, class and cultural customs for a new world society. The "castas" paintings in part, degraded mixed blood communities or mestizos by presenting them as mythical creations to project "classic" stereotypes.

The notion of a mixed blood identity has always been sneered at and ridiculed in many countries. For centuries, many societies have tried to justify or degrade mix blooded communities. For example, I learnt about the history of “Coloured” communities on my trip in Cape Town, South Africa. Through the scholarly works of many cultural critics, I made connections between Mexico's history of “mestizaje” and “Coloured” South Africans. South African writers: Steve Robbins and Heidi Grunebaum discussed and compared these two historical events as seen in colonial times “as sure signs of racial pollution and impurity”.1

Within a postmodern language, Michel Foucault wrote about the idea of "heterotopic space" in which I translate as an “in-between” space in relation to maintaining different bloodlines and cultures. Within this "in-between space", my pieces try to explore the idea of personal memory in relation to race and class. Ed Morales uses Foucault’s concept to describe the Latino/an identity in the United States as:

“It is a Spanglish space. If the postmodern era is characterized by unprecedented heterogeneity and randomness, then Latinos are well prepared to take advantage of it. We have spent the last several centuries preparing our roles at the first wholly postmodern culture.”2

I try to carry a visual dialogue with a contemporary art approach and non-traditional material to portray that idea of “heterotopic space”. In these pieces, I use my own ancestral origins to explore colonial, postmodern constructs and personal explanations of maintaining a mixed bloodline heritage. I play with colonial caste labels such as “yellow” and ancestral origins: my parents.

1. Erasmus, Zimitri (editor). Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town. Cape Town: Kwela Books (p.169).

2. Morales, Ed. Living in Spanglish: The Search for Latino Identity in America. Los Angeles: LA Weekly Books (p.17).


ABOUT THE EXHIBITOR: Jesus Macarena-Avila has been active as a community based art educator and has leaded mural projects for the Museum of Contemporary Art; Dance Africa Chicago/Office of Community Art Partnerships; Pros Arts Studios, District of Oak Park; and the Shanti Foundation for Peace. Awards: Special Assistance Grant/Illinois Arts Council; Community Volunteer/Chicago Boy and Girls Clubs. He has lectured at the Department of Economics of DePaul University; Art and Fiber Department of Northern Illinois University; Antioch College; Malcolm X College; and the 19th Century Women's Club. His studies include a MFA degree from Vermont College of Norwich University and a BFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi. He has been invited for art residencies with Greatmore Studios (Cape Town, South Africa); Footscray Art Centre (Melbourne, Australia); UCross Foundation (UCross, Wyoming) and the Printmaking Workshop (New York City). Macarena-Avila is a part-time instructor with Malcolm X College, Columbia College Chicago and DePaul University.


Polvo Art Studio
1458 W. 18th St 2F
Chicago, IL 60608
773.677.1914
Hours: Sat from 12-6pm or by appointment
http://www.polvo.org
polvoarte@yahoo.com