{"id":67838,"date":"2023-05-11T10:46:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T16:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=67838"},"modified":"2023-05-15T09:51:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T15:51:42","slug":"migrating-cultures-with-sara-serratos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/migrating-cultures-with-sara-serratos\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrating Cultures with Sara Serratos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Still from Sara Serratos’ “Institutional Photography.” Image credit: Geoff Wichert<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a question each of us should ask ourselves: what is my legacy likely to be? Lately, each generation or era gets assigned an identity \u2014 the Greatest, the Boomers, the Millennials \u2014 each of which might signify something. But what is the relation between a generational impact and a personal one? Sara Serratos<\/a>, whose exhibition \u201cMystic Tongues and ears struggle with our structured brain\u201d is now in the sunset gallery at Finch Lane, considers some candidates that few in her audience will want to identify with, but which are characteristic of this scrupulously honest artist\u2019s self-apprehension. Someone who refers to both her original Mexican address and her current one in Salt Lake by the names of the Peoples those lands belonged to, and from whom they were stolen, has little ease or comfort to offer. And so, in her statement, she has this to say about the material goods that, in art and so by extension in her life, might now be identified with her. Only the addition of the adjective \u201ctemporary\u201d expresses her hope that art can immunize our world from having this become our legacy:<\/h4>\n

In my artwork, my preferred material is the remnants of objects that trespass my door frame, such as plastic bags, packing materials, cardboard, bottles of personal hygiene products, beauty products, sounds, and songs. All these are becoming part of my temporary archive. … Those materials inform us of how our contemporary society is assembled: in a very individualistic perspective, surrounded in bubble paper, isolated but at the same time globalized and mechanized.<\/h4>\n
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Sara Serratos’ “Godalupe” at Finch Lane Gallery. Image credit: Geoff Wichert<\/p><\/div>\n

Serratos doesn\u2019t disclose when she made the move from Mexico to Utah, but the extent to which her response to immigration fills the work here suggests it was recently. Like so many of today\u2019s artists, she declines to limit herself to a single medium, but like the best of them, she subordinates most of her techniques to the service of one, for which she may well have designated a genre: Video Performance. At one end of the gallery, a pathway made of astroturf and spiraling lengths of braided human hair, which might otherwise be called an Installation, instead serves the primary video performance by directing attention to it. \u201cGodalupe\u201d presents the image of Serratos dancing beneath draped and trailing vines that frame her figure. Dressed in the manner of modern dance \u2014 what is known to the theater as \u201crehearsal attire\u201d \u2014 she has what may be serpents or wraiths \u2014 green auras, each with two pale red eyes \u2014 painted on the back of her hands, from which wisps descend onto her forearms.<\/h4>\n

\u201cGodalupe\u201d appears to be a mashup of cultural symbols, particularly mythical and religious, specifically creation stories. The title conjures up Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de Guadalupe, an apparition of the Virgin, who appeared before a Mexican campesino in 1531, an event that served to unify indigenous and invasive Latino populations. Much of the imagery of the video may relate to the Garden of Eden, with such intercultural encounters chosen to reflect Serratos\u2019s choice to trade one place for another, which she relates in her statement through observations and questions:<\/h4>\n

Being a total stranger, you don\u2019t know anybody, and nobody knows you.
\nYour mother tongue is not the local language.
\nThe color of your skin seems relevant to this society.
\nWhat about your homeland?<\/h4>\n

In addition to \u201cGodalupe,\u201d \u201cBeauty Secrets\u201d finds the artist poised behind a virtual wall of cosmetic packages, the contents of which she applies to herself. Reminiscent of a young person’s first attempts to use these ubiquitous and seemingly magical products, if nothing else it makes the point that regardless the goal, it\u2019s all a matter of social construction, even, as she suggests at one point, engineering. A third video, this one titled \u201cInstitutional Photography,\u201d contemplates something 15 Bytes has observed before, which is that the camera today has far more documentary uses, in ID, social connections, and other, more technical purposes, than the small number of artistic functions originally envisioned by its artist-inventors.<\/h4>\n

In one back corner of the gallery, a sampling of the artist\u2019s interest in signage hangs on the wall. Comprising slogans and linguistic learning devices, its overall title, \u201cAmerican Dream Wall,\u201d imagines a romantic teenager\u2019s journal that captures the anticipation that might be felt by someone contemplating emigrating. The show\u2019s overall title appears here, as do positive symbols, like \u201cthe Big Apple,\u201d and some suggestions of the emotions she might struggle with, not least a couple of large panels covered with questions marks and exclamation points in both the commonplace and the more expressive, paired Spanish forms \u2014 in which both first appear upside-down.<\/h4>\n
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Sara Serratos, “American Dream Wall,” Finch Lane Gallery. Image credit: Geoff Wichert<\/p><\/div>\n

In the other corner, Serratos locates a tiny store, like the entrepreneurial efforts one sees everywhere in Mexico. Hers offers t-shirts with either of two designs, each available in \u201clong leaves\u201d and \u201cshort leaves.\u201d One image, \u201cSaint Modem,\u201d depicts the title device surrounded by a nimbus similar to that which surrounds Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de Guadalupe, along with candles and a vase of flowers. It could be said to combine the artist\u2019s two cultures in one universally popular garment. The other, \u201cFlying Bed,\u201d presents a floral coverlet hovering over a stack of mattresses, with the motto, \u201cMi cuarto podr\u00eda estar en cualquirer parte (del mundo)\u201d … \u201cMy room could be anywhere (in the world).\u201d<\/h4>\n

And since that includes Utah, why not here?<\/h4>\n

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Mystic Tongues and ears struggle with our structured brain<\/em>, Finch Lane Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through June 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a question each of us should ask ourselves: what is my legacy likely to be? Lately, each generation or era gets assigned an identity \u2014 the Greatest, the Boomers, the Millennials \u2014 each of which might signify something. But what is the relation between a generational impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":67840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[96,4285],"class_list":["post-67838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-finch-lane-gallery","tag-sara-serratos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Institutional-Photography-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-14 06:29:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67843,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67838\/revisions\/67843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}