Phantom Sightings
11:42 AM
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Art,
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Originally written 9/8/08.
On Tuesday, August 12, 2008, I spent much of the day at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or better known as LACMA, enjoying pretty much everything the museum had to offer on their Free Admission Day. Living in Los Angeles my whole life, I’ve frequented the museum many times and have seen much of the art there before, so it was no surprise that a rotating exhibit with new pieces I have never seen before and much different than what was already offered sparked my interest; that exhibit being the Phantom Sightings: Art After The Chicano Movement which has been running since April 6th until September 1st. Unlike much of LAMCA, all the art here was very much urban and contemporary; two art styles which I absolutely love. Although some of it was weird (the rather oddly edited video in a tiny room in the middle of the gallery comes to mind), much of it, although much of it simple in design, was very creative, amazing, and unique. Here are two pieces that I took photos of with my iPhone; the first being this large thing “growing” on the walls and the second one being a Volkswagen Beetle made of recycled border patrol uniforms.
The piece is very much balanced, all presented with different shaped rectangular signs to form one big rectangular shape. Most of the shapes are around the same size and same brown cardboard color, but there are also two big white rectangular pieces with large text on either side and two smaller colorful pieces between those and right below and above the photograph in addition to a smaller white piece on the far right. It just all feels perfectly balanced in every way, yet somewhat random of placement within the rectangular form. It’s all pretty much ink on cardboard. Although I don’t recall a date on the piece, given the exhibit it’s featured in and the references in the sayings, it’s fairly recent; definitely within the last twenty years, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was as late as just a few months ago.
But the one piece that drew my attention the most was Dichos (Sayings) by Alexandro Diaz. It’s a very simplistic display of old cut pieces of cardboard signs with witty sayings in ink all grouped together, except for one photo in the center of the display of what I assume is the artist holding one of the signs on the streets. I have a love for typography, being a partial graphic designer that I am. I also have this thing with taking photos of signs; I just love signs for some reason. Add to the fact that I actually love a lot of these sayings, a lot of them are pretty clever and funny, it makes sense that I’d like this piece so much. It’s also a piece that almost forces the viewer to stop and look at it for much longer than what most people would glance at another piece of art and embrace it all since the viewer is so compelled (or at least I was) to read (and think about) every single saying.
The piece is very much balanced, all presented with different shaped rectangular signs to form one big rectangular shape. Most of the shapes are around the same size and same brown cardboard color, but there are also two big white rectangular pieces with large text on either side and two smaller colorful pieces between those and right below and above the photograph in addition to a smaller white piece on the far right. It just all feels perfectly balanced in every way, yet somewhat random of placement within the rectangular form. It’s all pretty much ink on cardboard. Although I don’t recall a date on the piece, given the exhibit it’s featured in and the references in the sayings, it’s fairly recent; definitely within the last twenty years, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was as late as just a few months ago.
As for the sayings themselves, they all seem to hit upon social issues using spins on popular phrases (“In the future everyone will be famous for $15.00”) and typical signs (“May contain peanuts”), Hispanic culture (“Make Tacos Not War), stereotypes (“Mexican Wallpaper”), and the degrading of human society (“Please don’t feed the supermodels”). Much of them seem to have a sense of humor to negativity or telling people to take action of some issue, even if it’s not completely direct. They’re all pretty witty and humorous, which makes all these issues of the world seem not too serious but still in a serious way. The artist is just trying to get his message across to people by, well, displaying his message, but in a more “fun” way to get people’s attention and thinking about it so they can remember it more and maybe take action one day on whatever the message is. I think he gets his ideas across pretty well.
More photos from the exhibit:
✗ Brian
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