RAW PROGRAM: WHERE WITHOUT WHOM

The Rising Arts Writers Program is an initiative created by The Arts Beacon to encourage, mentor, support and post writings by aspiring locals writers.  With the intention of fostering critical responses to art and artists in the Valley, the RAW Program creates an opportunity for up and coming writers to comment on their own art scene using the platform of The Arts Beacon website while also being a valuable resource for local artists seeking insights into their practice.

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There is not
A Single soul among the trees
And I
Don’t know where I’ve gone
– Octavio Paz

Arizona State University Art Museum presents Where Without Whom, an installment of the Contact Zones series that explores issues of identity, borderlands, and the everyday lives of natives through the lenses of Latin American Artists. In Where Without Whom each work of art exemplifies the essence of Nobel Prize winner, poet Octavio Paz’s and his poem (above). The exhibition features highly emotive and diverse work, with international artists who each have their own narrative to share in connection to their culture.

In this untitled lithograph from the series: America’s Finest, Vincent Valdez compares a Native American boxer to the martyr St. Sebastian. The subject of the martyr is seen a symbol of the role that many minorities are forced into during wartime; those who are considered second class citizens defend the country that often typecast and discriminate against them. The subject is wearing a stereotypical Native American headdress as arrows penetrate his body, also showing that while he may identify first as a boxer, those who see him first, only see an American Indian. The tight nature of the composition indicates that he has been relegated to a role that he is unable to break free from.

In La banda de Nuevo ritmo, Raul Corrales explores themes of revolution in Cuba. Drawn from firsthand experience, Corrales was the official photographer for Fidel Castro from 1959-1961. La banda de Nuevo ritmo translates to “the band of new rhythm,” and illustrates how war had become part of everyday life. The drum is the main focus; however a gun casually slung over the shoulder of the figure slowly emerges, demonstrating the reality that war is never too far away. This new “rhythm” of their existence is constant, and affects everybody including peasants, farmers and political leaders. Corrales excels in capturing these small moments that convey much greater circumstances.

With Let Me Be a Witness, Roberto Huezo remembers victims of the Salvadoran Civil War. Lasting for 12 years, many ordinary citizens were casualties buried in mass graves. In order to remove insurgency, the Salvadorian Armed Forces carried out a tactic named “draining the sea,” which put its primary focus on civilians to rid the support for the rebels. Huezo connects the disjointed body with the graves by portraying it as a landscape. The arms become rolling hills and bracelets turn to barbed wire, while the hands reach up out of the earth in a dignified, and memorial remembrance of those who died.
            Where Without Whom provides a deep sense of meaning and importance to complex and often misrepresented themes of social injustice. Although a small exhibition, the heavy subjects broached by the artists more than make up for its size.