
A view of Canonge’s Idolatries/Idolatrías, with Sarita Montiel on the screen.
At the closing party for the CINE-REAL exhibit at MediaNoche, in NYC, I spent some time playing around with this seriously rad interactive sculpture by multimedia artist Hector Canonge. The piece consists of an array of 16 Latin American food products – from pickled jalapeños to condensed milk to pork rinds – each of which features a Latina on the packaging. There’s a virginal-looking milkmaid, mother-figure types, and, of course, fiery ladies – like the woman on the La Morena tin, who is just bursting with attitude. (Love her.)
Viewers can then scan each of these products with the grocery scanner (on the wall, to the right) and it launches a clip of vintage Spanish or Latin American cinema, which features a woman that resembles, in look and demeanour, the image on the grocery product. It was an innovative exploration of the whole virgin/mother/whore archetype in Latin American culture. I’m just bummed that I didn’t make it to the show’s opening, so that I could have touted this sooner…
See more pix after the jump. Click on images to see ‘em large.
Continue reading ‘Photos: Idolatries/Idolatrías by Hector Canonge.’