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| Endless - 2007 |
ENDLESS (2007) is a multidisciplinary series comprised of oil paintings, ink drawings, relief and intaglio prints. At the heart of the series is the subject of war. What does it mean for a nation to wage an endless campaign of war? What costs are incurred for the nation waging that war? What are the physical, emotional, psychological, and financial effects to all persons involved? Is war inexorable or is it possible to end endless war? The series attempts to render all the above and more.
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In Flood (2006), Rodriguez provides three vignettes, exploring: the decadence of celebrity culture; masculinity in a time of war and surveillance; and the post-apocalyptic couple. These distinct vignettes feature Latino actors, but the stories are global, speaking to a world overrun with certainty, yet riddled with contradictions, turmoil, and darkness. Latinos have been described as a flood overflowing into the United States. What if, Flood suggests, Latinos flooded the nation with a glowing light, or a memory, that things could be different? (...).
->Read Essay by
Chon A. Noriega |
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"In my paintings, for THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, I have used the stills from an experimental narrative video---by the same title. These are situated simultaneously on a river bank where my grandparents settled after migrating to California from Mexico, and in a movie studio. The action in the film revolves around a picnic, real but staged, with a group of friends debating the value of art and the making of a commercial about family memories." Eventually the two stories mesh, demonstrating the Latino experience in America from the past to the present (from the working to middle class). As more and more Latinos and Latinas enter the middle, class, Rodriguez believes, "It is imperative to continue to discuss the interaction of issues, such as labor, immigration, class, gender, sexuality and the family".
->Read Official Press Release
->Read NY Arts Magazine Article
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| The series of paintings titled, The Flat Earth, looks back to the sixtheenth century, "El Siglo del Oro", and parallels it to the twenty-first. At one time, prior to Magellan's voyage, the world was thought to be flat. Current biases, present prejudices and monocular vision can have the tendency to flatten our perceptions and hijack the meanings of progress in the contemporary world. Whether it is the economic, political or domestic arena, I'm looking to challenge and contest :official knowledge and histories". |
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| Interruptions is a series of paintings that explores the fantasies, fears, and desire that manifest when Latino gay men seek to form intimate relationships. The work examines the forces of class, ethnicity, location, and sexuality and aims to interrupt these markers as they contribute to the construction of a person's identity. |
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