Vision, Artistry, “White Elephants” and Creole Identity: Latino Journeys in the Americas.

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Vision, Artistry, “White Elephants” and Creole Identity: Latino Journeys in the Americas.

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uploaded by Eliud Martinez

It’s interesting to observe how American culture proudly trumpets its Anglo-European past.  Yet, some would argue it actually owes much of its extraordinary global appeal to a distinctive vibrancy and flair derived from Native-American, Afro-American and Latin American influences.

Ironically, despite this rich diversity, America has often relegated its non-Anglo arts and artists to obscurity till they’d been lauded and applauded as” visionary prophets” from abroad. To be sure, there are socio-political and economic factors behind this occurrence, but this phenomenon also speaks to this country’s barely sustainable and misplaced euro-centric cultural/racial sense of itself.  

This mindset has prevented Americans from fully “owning” the fullness of their cultural wellspring and from examining the irony of a proverbial “white elephant hidden in its midst.”  What’s that, you ask?  America is a blended “criollo” (Creole) culture with a significant debt of gratitude to non-Anglo cultural influences. 

As we move toward increased globalization and mass migration with exploding birth rates among Latinos, America finds itself undergoing a process of “Latin-ization” previously unknown.  Poetically enough, Latino cultures, in the Americas and the US, represent distinct syncretic cultural models that share parallel colonial experiences based on a similar triad of cultural influences. 

As a community of neglected prophets and “seers” who understand or intuit this, Latino artists find themselves coming to terms with an extraordinary shift in their sense of place and belonging.  It’s no stretch of the imagination to conclude that their existential vision and artistry will presage and shape the future of Latino and mainstream American identity. 

Over the last thirty-plus years the New York-based arts organization, En Foco, has given acknowledgment and visibility to a number of Latino artists and artists of color in the field of fine art and documentary photography.  Their New Works Photography Awards program, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and looks back at the accomplishments made by so many of the 45 photographers it has awarded to date.

The En Foco New Works Photography Awards is a competitive annual program, selecting the most talented photographers of diverse cultures nationwide from an open call for entries . The featured 2006-07 winners in New Works #10 are Meg Escudé, Diya Murthy, and Stephen Marc, alongside Honorable Mention recipients Sonya Lawyer, Emilio Bañuelos, LaToya Frazier, and William Wilson. The exhibit also features a special presentation by artists that have participated over the past ten years, including Ana de Orbegoso, Terry Boddie, Annu Matthew, and Larry McNeil, to name a few.

While some artists seem preoccupied with a homeland recently left behind, Meg Escudé explores her bicultural (US) Latin-American identity by going abroad in search of her family’s cultural homeland.  Partly inspired by a desire to seek out her Argentine heritage, and out of a sense of profound disillusionment with American politics and consumerist culture, she goes on a journey of self-discovery.  In it she finds camaraderie and friendship in a most unexpected cultural microcosm: a Latin American circus.

Escudé’s images explore the lives within Circus Orlando Orfei, one of the oldest and most traditional of the Circuses still traveling throughout Latin America.  Her photos not only reveal the intimate portraits of its nearly 100 workers, it does so in the context of a fascinating pan American landscape. 

On the other hand, Ana de Orbegoso’s photo series titled “Invisible Walls,” raises questions of privacy, boundaries and the sense of safety these may provide.  Following her exposure as En Foco's New Works Photography Awards winner for 2002 for this work, she became affiliated with the Latin Collector Gallery.  Most recently she was awarded the “Primer Premio De Fotografia Peruana” for her new work.  A portion of this work will be seen at the NYC exhibit.

According to de Orbegoso, her earlier images (“Invisible Walls”), represents a visual confrontation with the barriers that are inseparable from the essence of human experience.  These barriers can be seen to serve many purposes, including resisting the invasive effects of " cultural imperialism" ("Americanization or Europeanization") and the banalities of consumerist culture.  Such “containment” offers both a sense of boundary as well as a sense of cultural nexus and contiguity.  Although this work was produced in Peru, it may possibly be suggestive of a provocative and controversial socio-political idea Americans “love to hate”. In its own way, it could symbolize limits to the ideas of classic “cultural assimilation” as well as the process of cultural rapprochement known as “Latin-ization.”

Through this and other art projects, America is being offered an unique opportunity to process this puzzle beyond simplistic polarizations and seek answers outside the euro-centric paradigm it has been living in.   Countries with mixed language cultures, such as Canada, Spain and Belgium, may yet shed light on this conundrum.  

One of this year’s En Foco honorable mentions, is photo documentary artist, Emilio Bañuelos, who captures individuals interacting in public group settings such as parades, nightclubs, parks, church services and rituals.  Bañuelos’ images seek to explore the responses of individuals caught somewhere between the pressures of conforming to mixed cultural norms and the inchoate world of private defining moments.  In his most recent work (Greyhound America) on exhibit, Bañuelos documents people in transition, compelled by a sense of hope that stems from necessity and survival. 

Although the subjects and cultural strains of En Foco’s New Works #10 Awards exhibition are not exclusively Latino, the themes of cultural diversity are all relevant from one community to another.

This year, En Foco’s New Works #10 Awards celebrate a series of pioneering personal visions of how history, an emergent sense of home and a culture can coexist, by involving the 45 artists it has awarded over the past ten years. While the photographic art in this exhibit clearly succeeds on its own artistic merits, the socio-political and existential issues raised here offer revealing insights on evolving US immigrant experiences, cultural identity and what it could mean to be “an American.” 

This is of particular relevance as first, second and third generation Latinos are joined by increasing waves of their more assimilated US-born offspring.  This exhibit is part of an historical and artistic record produced by a community of cross-cultural “seers”.  In the case of Latino artists, establishing a record that bridges future generations to the public and private identities of established Latinos and recent Hispanic immigrants.

As a non-profit organization and publisher, En Foco has been instrumental in supporting artists of color, providing the infrastructure and for promoting culturally diverse fine art and documentary photography exhibitions in the New York area.  Further details can be found at http://www.enfoco.org">www.enfoco.org>

The New Works #10: Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of En Foco's New Works Photography Awards exhibition, is an event that asks its public to expand its capacity to relate to other cultures and artistic representations addressing ethnic and national identity. 

The Exhibition dates are April 4 – May 19, 2007 and an Opening Reception will be held on Wednesday, April 4, from 5:00–8:00pm.  An Artist Talk will occur Thursday, April 5, from 6:00–7:30pm, with Meg Escudé, Ana de Orbegoso and Divya Murthy. The exhibition and events take place the Longwood Arts Gallery @ Hostos 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street, Bronx, NY 10451.  718.518.6728. All events are free and open to the public.
http://www.enfoco.org">www.enfoco.org>, and http://www.longwoodcyber.org">www.longwoodcyber.org>

En Foco is supported in part by the Bronx Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Carnegie Corporation of NY, public support by Senator Jose M. Serrano, the Association of Hispanic Arts/JP Morgan Chase, Daniele Agostino De Rossi Foundation, Lowepro, Bogen, Fuji Film, WNYC.org, members, subscribers and many dear friends.

IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
COMPLETE LIST OF EXHIBITING ARTISTS:
Divya Murthy - Meg Escudé -  Stephen Marc -  Sonya Lawyer – LaToya Frazier
Emilio Banuelos – William Wilson - Tony González  - Annu Palakunnathu Matthew
Terry Boddie  - Tertuliano Delgado – Sheila Pree Bright - Jaishri Abichandani
Larry McNeil - Ana de Orbegoso - Don Gregorio Antón  - Bonnie Portelance
Trinidad Mac-Auliffe
Also featuring a digital presentation of works by:
Rita Rivera  - Angel Chevrestt - Ivonne Maria Marcial  - Rodolfo Ornelas
Daniel Salazar  -  Pipo Nguyen-duy - Sulaiman Ellison - André Cypriano
Kapulani Landgraff  - Darrell Matsumoto - Andrew Ortiz  - Edwine Seymour
Lisa Jong-Soon Goodlin  - Gaye Chan  - Rosey Hong-An Truong  - Hyongsun Ha
Ching-Wei Jiang  - Felicia Megginson  - Colette Fu - Keba Konte - Liliana Rodriguez
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz  - Nzingah Muhammad  - Michael Gonzales - Javier Carmona
Preston Wadley  - Cyndi Prince.