{"id":43760,"date":"2019-04-16T21:15:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T03:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=43760"},"modified":"2019-06-03T10:08:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T16:08:21","slug":"horacio-rodriguez-collaborates-with-past-and-present-at-finch-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/horacio-rodriguez-collaborates-with-past-and-present-at-finch-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Horacio Rodriguez Collaborates with Past and Present at Finch Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A family of three sculpted figures sits atop a pedestal. Ceramic renderings of pre-Columbian figures, the parents are separated from their child, who is encased in a cage. Sadly, we\u2019ve grown accustomed to seeing tragic images of despair and suffering at the U.S.-Mexico border. Emblematic of President Donald Trump\u2019s ill-fated family separation policy, which lasted from April to June of 2018 before being suspended via executive order, numerous reports indicated that the children separated from their parents were held in literal cages. The mere suggestion, let alone imagery, of this policy horrified millions of Americans and led to a public outcry.<\/h4>\n

Now, Horacio Rodriguez, professor of ceramics and a Raymond C. Morales Post-MFA Teaching Fellow at the University of Utah, has crafted a timely and thought-provoking exhibition centering on themes of immigration and cultural identity. His work, which deftly blends the old with the new, invites us to ponder the importance of visual culture in shaping our perception of class and national identity.<\/h4>\n

After graduating from Montana State University with his MFA in 2016, Rodriguez began his teaching fellowship at the U, where he began using the rather inventive process of recasting pre-Columbian art objects into ceramics using a 3D printer. As a culmination of the work done during his fellowship, his new show at Finch Lane, (Un)invited Collaborations with my Ancestors<\/em>, aims to ignite conversations about art\u2019s role in shaping and complicating our national identity.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rodriguez relishes the act of appropriation, his \u201c1% Molotov Cocktails\u201d series a keen example. Here, the eye-catching Louis Vuitton symbol is emblazoned across a series of crisp bottles with accompanying rags at their top. When placed in visual form, the union of highbrow capitalism and revolution appears instantly ridiculous. In others, Rodriquez uses a ceramic detail printer to place images such as the border wall and religious deities onto a ceramic surface.<\/h4>\n

In the past year, he\u2019s applied a new focus to this practice of appropriation. \u201cI\u2019ve always been fascinated with pre-Columbian artifacts and their significance to my culture,\u201d he says, referring to his Puerto Rican mother and Mexican father. After co-teaching a course with the architecture department, he became fascinated by the possibilities of re-creating pre-Columbian art objects with 3D printers. After scanning items within his own collection, he approached the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In all, he scanned six artifacts from their collection. After making the scans, Rodriguez makes prints, which then form molds for his ceramic casts. Though copied in form from earlier originals, to Rodriguez, the slick, ceramic surfaces are now fresh canvases upon which to experiment in radically new ways.<\/h4>\n