So how is it possible that I went more than 5 months without updating the blog? A very complicated matter; surely, it couldn’t possibly be laziness or disorganization! Well, actually there was an element of the just mentioned involved, but it’s also true that when I started this blog, I spent a lot of time putting up texts and images from previous years. Then I entered into a period of much more productivity and only added the new stuff. But another period arrived, after November, in which I was working on new material without having it jelled, and without feeling motivated to fill in by continuing with the relation of previous work. Actually there is work from the past that I should at some point add to the blog, but right now I´ve managed to put together more new work, starting with the text (and some of the images) for the show to be inaugurated June 6th in La Gloria, the café/gallery so dear to the heart of us chilangos (ie, residents of Mexico City). And although the text starts off repeating some of what you already know from the blog, be patient, new information will appear. To wit:
serie Inmolación, III- Fashion/Immolation series, III
serie Inmolación, III- Fashion/Immolation series, III, Fashion-detalle-detail
Not long ago I came across the fact that in an almost extinct Australian aboriginal language, one of its various genders consists of women, fire, and dangerous objects. This interested me because the elements of this gender coincide with themes that I’ve explored in my own work. Women are a constant in my images, and although usually they are depicted in a vulnerable state, in a few instances they have appeared brandishing dangerous objects, notably a half-naked girl with a whip and boots that I drew when I was five, and a woman in a fifties bathing suit shooting at Guernica -to the consternation of certain lovers of Picasso- made when I was thirty. And for many years I have been collecting images of volcanoes and immolations (these either self inflicted or the product of lynching), as well as scenes involving people and fire (young Palestinians throwing Molotov cocktails, for instance). About the time I became aware of the language in question I had just started to make artists’ books from some of this fiery material.
serie Inmolación, III- Fashion/Immolation series, III, Fashion-detalle-detail
Entonces se me ocurrió que sería pertinente trabajar con las implicaciones de agrupar estas tres palabras potentes y hacer una investigación más sistemática de mujeres, fuego y objetos peligrosos. Siempre trabajo con imágenes de archivo, generalmente con archivos de mi propia invención, pero esta vez decidí utilizar ese gran archivo que es la red y empecé a meter en google search: images las palabras women fire o dangerous objects. Emergió un material muyinteresante e inesperado.
serie Inmolación, II/Immolation series, II-detalle-detail
So it occurred to me that it could be pertinent to work with the implications of grouping these three potent words: women, fire and dangerous objects, and to investigate them in a more systematic way. I almost always work with images from archives, usually archives of my own invention, but this time I decided to utilize that great archive, the World Wide Web, and started to put into -Google search: images- the words women fire or dangerous objects. A very interesting and somewhat unexpected material emerged.
serie Inmolación, II- Fashion/Immolation series, II
Bajo dangerous objects encontré referencias a meteoritos, por ejemplo, y una serie de imágenes en rayos equis documentando los objetos peligrosos e insólitos hallados tanto en cuerpos humanos como animales. Entre los casos de mujeres, destaca el de una joven china que padecía de dolor crónico, en cuyo cuerpo se encontraron más de 20 agujas que al parecer sus abuelos le clavaron en su infancia, deseosos de su muerte para abrir el paso al futuro nacimiento de un nieto varón. También empecé a pedir a amigos y parientes sugerencias sobre posibles objetos peligrosos y buscar imágenes de lo sugerido en internet.
serie Inmolación, II/Immolation series, II-detalle-detail
Under dangerous objects I encountered many references to meteorites, for instance, and a series of X-ray images documenting the dangerous and unusual objects found in bodies, both of humans and animals. Among the cases involving women, that of a young Chinese suffering from chronic pain stands out. In her body over 20 needles were found, apparently inserted into her as an infant by her grandparents, in an attempt to provoke her death and clear the path for the birth of a future male grandson. I also started to ask friends and relations for suggestions of possible dangerous objects and to follow up their suggestions with more internet image searches.
No intentes esto en casa/Don't try this at home
En cuanto a mujeres y fuego, encontré evidencia tras evidencia de una práctica en la India de aprovechar las fogatas abiertas de las cocinas tradicionales para quemar a las nueras o esposas indeseables (para luego buscar una dote mejor). Entre los que se inmolan, de los cuales tengo en mi colección tanto hombres como mujeres, había casos sonados de monjes que se quemaban por razones políticas, pero lo que más me sorprendió fueron aquellos que recurrieron a esta drástica medida después de que les fuese negado el permiso para abrir un negocio o por enfrentar un desalojo. En las pláticas resultantes a la pregunta “¿y qué estás preparando?” y mi subsecuente respuesta, salieron otras posibilidades, como la auto combustión, de la cual por coincidencia acabo de encontrar un caso en el libro Bleak House de Charles Dickens, que estoy escuchando (sí, audio) como parte de mis estrategias para no aburrirme mientras trabajo.
Centinela/Sentinel
As for women and fire, I found one story after another of a practice in India in which the traditional open kitchen fires are employed to burn unwanted daughter-in-laws or wives (with a replacement and her dowry in mind). Among those who burn themselves up, of whom I find both men and women in my collection, there are famous cases of monks who ignite themselves for political reasons, but what I find most surprising, in terms of motives, are those who recur to this drastic measure after being denied a permit to open a shop, or when faced with eviction. In the talks that regularly take place after being asked, “So what are you working on right now?” and my subsequent reply, other possibilities have emerged, such as auto combustion, of which I just happened find a case, by coincidence, in Bleak House by Charles Dickens, a novel I have been listening to (yes, free audio books!) as I work as one of my strategies to avoid boredom.
Centinela/Sentinel-detalle-detail
Hasta ahora iba trabajando con información muy limitada en cuanto a la fuente del concepto de mujeres, fuego y objetos peligrosos. Pero luego recibí en mi blog, donde había platicado algo de mi proyecto, un comentario sobre el lingüista George Lakoff , que publicó en los años ochenta un libro titulado Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, al parecer relacionado con ese idioma aborigen. Busqué el libro (en la red por supuesto) y encontré en su prefacio (cortesía de Amazon) que efectivamente se trataba del mismo idioma, que se llama el Dyirbal. Según otro sitio, al hablar en este idioma, cada nombre se precede con uno de cuatro clasificadores: Bayi, Balan, Balam, o Bala. Balan incluye mujeres y fuego y además, cierto tipo de armas como lanzas, el sol y las estrellas, animales insólitos como el platypus, ciertos insectos como los alacranes y las luciérnagas, algunas serpientes, perros, casi todas las aves y el agua. Analizado por R.M.W. Dixon, las categorías se pueden simplificar así: Bayi se aplica a hombres y a la mayor parte de los animales, Balan a mujeres, agua, fuego y pelea, Balam a la comida que no sea carne y Bala, a todo lo no incluido en otras clases.
Centinela/Sentinel-detalle-detail
Up to this point I had been working with limited information about the source of the concept women, fire, and dangerous objects. Then I received a commentary in my blog, where I had commented something about my project, to the effect that in the eighties, the linguist George Lakoff had published a book called Women, Fire and Dangerous Things which was probably related to the same aboriginal language. I looked for the book (in the web of course) and discovered from its preface (courtesy of Amazon) that it indeed had to do with that language, called Dyirbal. According to another site, when one speaks in Dyirbal, all nouns are preceded by one of four classifiers: Bayi, Balan, Balam, and Bala. Balan includes women and fire, and also some kinds of weapons such as spears, the sun and the stars, unusual animals like the platypus, some insects including scorpions and fireflies, certain snakes, dogs, most birds, and water. As analizado by R.M.W. Dixon, the categories can be simplified as follows: Bayi applies to men and most animals, Balan to women, water, fire and fighting, Balam to food which is not flesh, and Bala to everything not included in the other categories.
No intentes esto en casa/Don't try this at home
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Los lingüistas se han fijado en el Dyirbal para el estudio de categorías, especialmente categorías culturales. A mí me interesan sus categorías por lo que puedan sugerir y las imágenes que pueda inventar a partir de ellas. Pretendo hacer con las imágenes y conceptos encontrados lo que suelo hacer con el material que trabajo: alterar, combinar y re contextualizar, en el intento de crear imágenes que ofrezcan algo que las palabras no abarcan.
Linguists have found Dyirbal very useful for the study of categories specifically related to culture. As for me, I find the language’s categories interesting for all they may suggest and for the images I can invent building on what I find in such suggestion. I intend to do with the resulting images and concepts what I always do with the material I work with: alter, combine, recontextualize, in an attempt to create images that offer something that words cannot convey.
obra en proceso/work in progess
