Santa
Fe, New Mexico, USA--From Saturday, February 6 through Sunday, March 14, 1999,
SITE Santa Fe presents TOM SACHS: Sony Outsider ("Gajin") and RUBÉN ORTIZ
TORRES: Alien Toy. Both exhibitions are organized by SITE Santa Fe. There is
a free public opening on Saturday, February 6 from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m., with performances
during the opening for each exhibition and gallery talks scheduled with each
artist beginning at 4:00 p.m. There will be additional performances of the works
begining at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 7, 1999. An accompanying catalogue
will be published for the Sachs exhibition. From February 13 - 28, 1999, SITE
Santa Fe will host MONOTHON 13; this benefit exhibition is organized by the
College of Santa Fe.
Born in New York in 1966 and raised in the suburbs of Connecticut, Tom Sachs
grew up in a world of commercialism and technology--and he considers these
forces his greatest influences. Sachs is a sculptor who creates, in his own
words, "cultural prosthetics." By making models of pre-existing objects out
of mixed media, Sachs simultaneously challenges attitudes toward art while
satisfying a desire for glamorous products.
Sachs' sculptures are not like the familiar ready-mades of Duchamp and Warhol,
but instead are models. They are objects whose existence depends on an original,
or that exist as prototypes for the future production of an object.
Sony Outsider is a full-size model of the "Fat Man" atomic bomb that was
dropped on Nagasaki, Japan at the end of World War II. It is built to full-scale
of the actual bomb with all the original external details and finished with
a glossy white polyurethane. The inside is a living space lined with leather
upholstery. It contains a sink, urinal, and DVD player with Dolby surround
sound so as to make a passenger comfortable on their ride to bombing a civilization.
Sony Outsider also comes complete with a remote control.
"We're doing the same thing today with fashion and other industries that
people were doing with war 40 years ago, Sachs explains. "Now, if you want
to kill a country, you don't bomb them--you just give them VCRs. It's the
same kind of domination and violence, just without the bullets. You're basically
bombing out their old culture and putting in this new, homogenized one."
With the popular label "Sony" on the exterior and interior of Sony Outsider,
reflecting the manipulative power of merchandising, "Sony" becomes an emblem
of the ultimate status symbol. It also reveals a reputation of supreme technology.
Tom Sachs conveys a distinct message that both horrifies and humors a viewer
into recognizing some components of contemporary society.
RUBÉN ORTIZ TORRES is an internationally-recognized artist who has
received critical attention for dealing with borders. Born in 1964 and raised
in Mexico City, Ortiz Torres moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and received a Masters
in Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts in 1992. He uses a variety
of media to explore linguistic, aesthetic and social situations in both art
and culture. His work not only crosses borders, but also recognizes that individual
identities are in flux within changing zones and regions.
Ortiz Torres reveals images that are both familiar and foreign, objects
that we can recognize, but that are distorted. In Alien Toy, he works with
Salvador "Chava" Muñoz's lowrider Nissan truck, Wickedbed, which is capable
of fragmenting itself into several pieces as it spins into the air, reflecting
the popular tradition of Mexican puppets and toys. Since the lowrider is an
essential part of contemporary Hispanic culture, the work finds its own definition
of new mythologies in contemporary society. Customizing--a method Ortiz Torres
uses throughout his work--is a method for building something according to
personal specifications. In this case, the lowrider is designed to question
systems of validation. It is an example of the way popular art can be of a
technological nature in a modernist presentation. Alien Toy is constructed
with real and imaginary representations in a form filled with aesthetics,
media, politics, and humor.
During a performance, while the car is deconstructing itself, a video projection
system plays images from the desert to remind a viewer of Roswell, New Mexico,
the purported site of a UFO crash landing in 1947. This science fiction allusion
is an appropriate genre for Ortiz Torres, because it is a form whose general
subtext relies on the questioning of boundaries, and whether dealing with
national or individual identities or unearthly possibilities, Ortiz Torres
redefines those lines.
SITE Santa Fe is located at 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM. Exhibition
hours are: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Admission is $2.50
for adults and $1.00 for students and seniors; Sundays are free. Free admission
Sundays are provided by a grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston.
Docent tours are offered on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
and tours in Spanish are available by appointment. Call 505/989-1199 for more
information.
Top of Page
