Lou Peralta DISASSEMBLE SERIES
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lou peralta DISASSEMBLE SERIES Disassemble #48 (cover image) Archival pigment print with cinnamon & wood stripes 23 x 22”, edition of 7 + 1 AP My great grandfather José María Herrera PRESENTATION For more than 100 years, my ancestors, portrayed their subjects with a talent and a unique style to approach people and bring to light their souls and their feelings. This made them have a quality of “indispens- able” among all those popular figures, thanks to the news media, while at the same time becoming the keeper of stories for countless families I belong to a family of four my grandfather Armando Herrera in Mexico. generations of photographers, My approach to portraiture as a visual artist is profoundly inspired by that started a long tradition in them and their work. I myself worked for many years in professional photography using that technique. For three years now, however, I’ve portrait at the end of the 19th been interested in creating new meanings for portraiture, deconstruct- ing and constructing images in a series named Disassemble. For this series, I photograph people from different regions of Mexico that reflect Century in Mexico. the country’s varied cultural heritage and celebrates the diverse genetic make-up of their physical characteristics. I seek to build appreciation for a new Mexican identity and overcome certain stereotypes and preconceptions. The images are em- bedded, sewn, and woven with materials that I considered part of the “DNA” of Mexican life. I wish my images will create a new energy and consciousness regarding what it means to be Mexican. Lou Peralta Visual Artist my father Héctor Herrera and me, Ana Lourdes Herrera Peralta (Lou Peralta). MENU DISASSEMBLE SERIES III Nationality and gender are very much part of Lou Peralta´s exploration PRESENTATION 2 and creation of a portrait. As a fourth generation family member o por- trait photographers, she and her family use photography to create visual DISASSEMBLE SERIES 5 stories for countless families in Mexico. A citizen of Mexico, Peralta INSPIRATION 40 has a Pre-Columbian heritage not only of Teotihuacan, Aztec, Mayan, but also European, mostly Spanish. In examining herself, she looks at DOCUMENTATION 42 others with the same curiosity about their heritage, emotional state and MOST RECENT EXHIBITION 46 personality. She breaks away from with the traditional portrait. Peralta captures the person beyond their outer beauty, and impregnates the ARTIST STATEMENT 47 image with their inner essence and culture. She then adds dimensional- BIO 47 ity to each image when she literally imbeds, weaves or layers materials unique to the person´s image. Materials are from all parts of Mexico, CV 48 selected as a kind of Mexican “DNA”. These found objects are items CONTACT 50 such as feathers from a grandmother´s hat, parts of an old necklace, fragments of a woven shawl of filament of wool dyed naturally with cochineal or pomegranate relevant to that person´s heritage. Peralta creates a sculptural magic with the camera that lights up our emotional response to the person we see. The uniqueness of her three dimensional art redefines how we engage with portraiture. DISASSEMBLE SERIES (An on-going project since 2017). All the pieces in the Series Disassemble I, II and III, can be viewed in: https://www.louperalta.art Disassemble #41 Archival pigment print with corn leaf, corn seeds, & wood clothespins 37 x 28.34 x 0.78”, edition of 7 + 1 AP The Virgin of Guadalupe is, along with corn, an icon of national identity. For this recreation of the patron saint of Mexico, I used the husks and kernels from this omnipresent crop. Disassemble #19 Disassemble #20 Archival pigment print with cloth on white board Archival pigment print with feathers 21 x 16”, edition of 3 + 1 AP 20 x 14”, edition of 10 + 1 AP Disassemble #24-1 Disassemble #24-2 Archival pigment print mounted on wood Archival pigment print mounted on wood board board with nails & cord with nails & cord 23.75 x 17”, edition of 3 + 1 AP 23.75 x 17”, edition of 3 + 1 AP Disassemble #31 Archival pigment print and luffa 34.6 x 18.3”, edition of 7 + 1 AP The moments machine ...This photo is an exploration on how sometimes depending on the day, you come to see a bright or dark side of someone’s personality. It is also an exploration of the complexity of a human being. As when we see our face reflected in running water, it’s never static--we are constantly moving, our states of mind shifting and evolving; we are like a perfect machine creating moments in our life. Disassemble #35 Archival pigment print with zacate from henequen plant 27.16 x 18.50 x 7.87”, edition of 1 + 1 AP Zacate From the Náhuatl word zacatl (grass, herbs or hay), this fiber is used for everything from scour- ing pads and body scrubbers to rope, sacks, baskets and other crafts. In the olden days, the fiber from the henequen agave was used to tie together bamboo rods used to make the chimalli, or shields, of Mesoamerican warriors. Disassemble #34 Archival pigment print on rice paper with copper wire 23.62 x 17.71 x 3.54”, edition of 10 + 1 AP The copper wire that was used to intervene this portrait comes from the state of Chihuahua, one of the world’s leading copper producers. Disassemble #39A Disassemble #39B Archival pigment print Archival pigment print 18.5 x 13.56”, edition of 10 + 1 AP 19.68 x 15.35”, edition of 10 + 1 AP Disassemble #47 Archival pigment print 26.57 x 26.57”, edition of 10 + 1 AP Inspired by the talavera tiles made in Puebla Originally from China, this type of ceramic was brought by potters to Spain, and from there to the New World. Here, craftsmen taught indigenous people to produce this kind of tile. In the 16th century there was a boom in the production of talavera pottery in Puebla because of the availability of natural clay and wide demand for tiles to decorate churches and monasteries. Disassemble #45 Archival pigment print on metallic paper & metal fiber 13.77 x 5.70 x 5.70”, edition of 10 + 1 AP Metal fiber This kind fiber is present in many households—used to scrub pots, grills, frying pans and other grimy surfaces. Disassemble #49 Archival pigment print with red escobilla & kraft paper 11.22 x 11.22”, edition of 1 + 1 AP Sweeping, scrubbing or mopping… the Mexican people are always cleaning. Their equipment is complete with the typical red scrubbing brush. Even as recently as the mid-20th century, merchandise in the market was wrapped in a sheet or bag of brown Kraft paper. Today, growing environmental awareness will restore this product its place of preference over plastic bags. Disassemble #43 Disassemble #25 Archival pigment print with handmade silk thread, fragments of silk cocoon, & wood Archival pigment print on white board 23.03 x 17.51 x 2.65”, unique 27.5 x 19.25”, edition of 10 + 1 AP Disassemble #23 Archival pigment print with paper ribbons on white board 16.14 x 14.17”, edition of 10 + 1 AP 40 × 30” in, edition of 3 + 1AP Serpentine The well-known strip of paper--tightly rolled then thrown by one end where it unfurls dramatically, is the star of many a Mexican fiesta, particularly Independence day or year-end holidays. Disassemble #42 Archival pigment print with plastic market bag 24.40 x 23.42”, unique Disassemble #36 Archival pigment print with wood and silk thread tinted with añil, grana cochinilla, and pericon (among others) Market bag 25.59 x 17.32 x 2.36”, unique Baskets and wooden crates used in the 20th century to tote mer- chandise are complemented with woven plastic bags. I remember in Silk rebozos, or shawls, are highly valued in Mexico. Many years ago, high-born ladies would only wear theirs at home, the 1970s going with my grandmother for the daily shopping at the while the women in the village wouldn’t leave their homes without it--for them, the rebozo was an overcoat, a purse, a Mercado de San Juan. She would carry one of these bags, which she cradle, clotheslines, handkerchief, and shroud. used for the same purpose for a number of years. Disassemble #40 Disassemble #37 Archival pigment print on canvas with bamboo and costal Archival pigment print on metallic paper with copper wire 28.34 x 28.x34 x 0.78”, edition of 3 + 1 AP 27.16 x 19.68 x 2.36”, unique Disassemble #44 Disassemble #29 Archival pigment print with pink tissue paper Archival pigment print with bamboo, amate paper, & cord 18.30 x 15.74”, unique 12 x 17”, edition of 1 + 1 AP Inspired by cut paper Amate paper Colored tissue paper is cut into intricate patterns using chisels. The resulting banners are This natural vegetable paper, made by artisans from the bark of the used to decorate homes and patios for Independence Day, altars for Day of the Dead, and amate tree, is used widely in pre-Hispanic codices. Today it is used tables for baptisms, quinceañeras and many other celebrations. widely in a number of crafts. Disassemble #38 Archival pigment print with bamboo, feathers, henequen thread 33.46 x 26.36 x 0.78”, unique Colorful Mexican feather dusters, still sold in markets, remind us of pre-Hispanic feather art in the form of dramatic crests or shields, among other objects. Pre-Hispanic warriors also used bamboo for their shields, cutting it, drying it and then cut- ting it lengthwise into thin strips.