'Phantom Sightings:

Art After the Chicano Movement'

Delilah Montoya, Juan Capistran and Ruben Ortiz Torres reflect on their work, the show and what it means to be a Chicano artist.

April 6, 2008

DELILAH MONTOYA
Born in Fort Worth, 1955
Lives and works in Houston and Albuquerque

AS a teenager in Omaha, I remember going to my high school teacher and very defiantly telling her, "I'm a Chicana artist!" She looked at me and said, "There's no such thing." So I was going to prove to her that yes there is. Later when I entered the academic world and tried to find Chicano art, I was coming up really empty-handed. I found that we were in the process of inventing ourselves. So my art had a lot to do with the self-inventive nature of the Chicano Movement.

I always feel like I'm still emerging, like I'm just breaking out of the gate somehow. It has to do with the way creativity works. You always have to question yourself and the things around you. It keeps you on the edge of always trying to understand.

What is occurring now is that we're getting this new [immigrant] generation that is bringing more
life into the culture. They're re-Hispanicizing us. It's our otro yo [other self] that is coming to join us. That means the culture is always changing; it's a living culture.


JUAN CAPISTRAN
Born in Guadalajara, 1976
Lives and works in Los Angeles

Ipersonally have never called myself Chicano, which to me was like a dated term. It seemed to be something that happened in the '60s and '70s but didn't have anything to do with me because of where I was growing up and how I grew up. It just seemed like something far away from me. I grew up in South-Central L.A., pretty much around African Americans, and I had an affinity toward black culture as opposed to my own culture. My parents are a traditional Mexican family, but I gravitated toward other cultures just to find my place here.

A lot of my work references popular forms of music, and subcultures that surround music. I'm also a DJ, so I'm interested in the art of remixing or appropriation. The music allows me to have these multiple points of view, where I'm not tied down to one singular identity. It kind of opens up the dialogue.

Being in this show is like a homecoming. I've had more success outside of L.A., so it's always good to be part of a big historical show in your hometown.


RUBÉN ORTIZ TORRES
Born in Mexico City, 1964
Lives and works in Los Angeles

WE navigate treacherous waters because there seems to be this binary model where you have, on the one hand, international globalized art and, on the other, a regionally specific notion of what art and culture could be. Artists have been forced to choose one or the other. Either you participate in the art world and show in fancy galleries, or you show in the community and represent where you're coming from. But there's a new generation of artists who refuse to play that game. They want to have it both ways. We want to be international but we want to be local as well.

"Art After the Chicano Movement" is not negating the Chicano movement. It reaffirms it, but it wants to engage those issues with the notion of art at large. We're not trying to choose between one position or the other, but somehow negotiate between both.

This show makes me feel part of a scene. I've never been so proud to be in a show with a bunch of my students. My hope is that it will break with stereotypes about the possibilities and limitations of artists of color, in particular Mexican and Mexican American artists.

--

Agustin Gurza