CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE A graduate project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts in Art, Visual Arts By Ricardo Cisneros May 2019 Copyright by Ricardo Cisneros 2019 ii The graduate project of Ricardo Cisneros is approved: _____________________________________ _________ Christian Tedeschi, M.F.A. Date _____________________________________ _________ Steven Hampton, M.F.A., Ph.D. Date _____________________________________ _________ Laurel Long, M.F.A., Chair Date California State University, Northridge iii DEDICATION Con todo el amor, para mi papa y mama. Gracias por siempre apoyarme. This accomplishment could not be possible without the support of my parents and my love, Juliana. My road in life, thus far, has not been a straight or easy journey. The work produced during the course of this program is a reflection of deep emotions and hardened, lived experience. Thank you to the amazing CSUN faculty members: Laurel Long, Samantha Fields, Steven Hampton, Erik Sandberg, Lesley Krane, Magdy Rizk, Tim Forcum, and Kim Light. You helped un-package the ingredients necessary to produce the content of my life. I am forever grateful. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright ii Signature Page iii Dedication iv Abstract vi The Running Man as prescient 1 The Unwrapping 3 Negating The Spectacle 5 The Burger 12 Works Cited 14 Appendix 15 v ABSTRACT Contents Under Pressure By Ricardo Cisneros Master of Fine Arts in Art, Visual Arts What is the worth of an individual? My mixed media, two- and three-dimensional works create a visual survey of societal trends and the psychological “detournement”1 that is engineered within systems of capitalism, social injustice, class warfare, andfood politics. The inception of my current body of workThe Burger(Fig 1.), began frommental turmoil and emotional entropy. My father suffered a cardiac arrest while in dialysis treatment over the summer of 2018. At the time, I was attending the closing showcase of a book making class at CSU Fresno. I received a call from my mother who informed me of my father’s condition. My world fell into a state of static, emotional paralysis. I had to make a choice: drop everything or continue onto my next class (one that I desperately needed to complete my MFA program in two years). ___________________ 1 “Detournement is the fluid language of anti-ideology. It occurs within a type of communication aware of its inability to enshrine any and definitivecertainty”(Debord 146) vi With my mother’s sound advice, I decided to stay and follow through with the next class. Due to the intense scheduling of the CSUSummer Arts program I was attendingI was allotted one day a week forbreak. I spent each of those days driving seven hours round trip to see my father. I later found out that his heart had stopped for six minutes before the paramedics were able to resuscitate him. I spent the rest of that summer tending to my parent’s emotional and physical well-being. My father has since made a slow but full recovery. During his recovery, I began to reflect on how much he means to me. When I think of all the memories I have of my father, one recurring tradition always stands out, eating a “Big Mac” sandwich together(cue in the cheesy 1980’s film montage). I wanted to honor him in some way, but I had no clue how that would manifest in the work. The key to The Burger’s genesis and the focus of my current body of work was its structure. A total of nine three-dimensional sculptures create the individual layers found inside the “Big Mac.”Each form is supported by a wooden base, andthe shape is hand sculpted using a patching compound called Fix It All2, purchased from The Home Depot.Once the structural integrity of the form has stabilized, a primer is applied followed by several layers of acrylic paint. A faux finish is on the surface in likeness of the real burger. Layers that exhibit accessory toppings, such as the top bun and double meat patties, carry with them smaller hand sculpted and painted polymer clay sculptures. Each layer acts as a framing element for a hand painting still life composition located on its center surface. The objects represented are personal medical equipment and medication used to treat my father’s chronic illnesses. ____________ 2 Fix it All is manufactured by Custom Building Products, a subsidiary of the Quickrete company. Established in 1940, it is sold by The Home Depot retailer as a patching compound for interior wall repair. vii The Running Man as Prescient The year was 1982. A few notable highlights fromthis time: I was born, Michael Jackson’s second solo album Thriller was released, andRichard Bachman’s (Stephen King’s pseudonym) The Running Man(Fig 2), was published. Considered to be the most popular of the Bachman books, it was adapted into a feature film under the same title in 1987. The film’s incarnation exercised various creative liberties that helped establish it as a cult classic. In the novel, it is the year 2025. Richards enters the self-titled game show in hopes of winning the grand prize of one billion dollars. His physical appearance is more in line withan average build; he is just a normal guy looking to score big and help his impoverished family. The duration of his participation lasts over 30 days. He travels across the United States as he documents and transmits his experience to the game show. In the novel, his journey comes to an end when Richards flies a plane into the game’s headquarters. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role as Benjamin Richards, the film version is set in the year 2017. Richards’ character is portrayed as a rogue police officer. While on a mission, he disobeys an order to fire onto a crowd of civilians. As punishment, he is sent to a labor camp where the lower-class must work to pay their burden back to society. There, he meets a resistance group that would like to recruit him in their efforts to fight the oppressive government regime and media monopoly ICS. Together they orchestrate an escape attempt where Richards and allies are captured and taken by the justice department. The host of the real life show, Family Feud, actor Richard Dawson plays the film’s villain and Damon Killian (Fig 3). As host to The Running Man, Killian exercises complete control over any televised broadcast. He 1 fabricates a story that embellishes the actions of Richards’ escape and portrays him as a serial killer in order to enlist him as a contestant in thehighly rated television show. In order to regain his freedom, Richards and other contestants of The Running Man must work together to defeat gladiator-like executioners referred to as “stalkers.” The public watches the onslaught of violence outside the arena as Killian encourages gambling odds in favor of which contestant will die next. The fictional narrative world represented in The Running Man holds a relevant and resilient commentary on issues afflicting society today. The system modalities that allowed the fictional media tyrant, ICS, to control all aspects of information in the film, can also be found today. Co-Op city can be replaced with the United States and an analogous system of class warfare, media biased information, dependency on consumer products, addiction to celebrity icon’s, and exhausted natural resources. Over three decades after its theatrical release, The Running Man continues to inform content within my art practice. 2 The Unwrapping Growing up in the eighties, I watched a lot of television. As the middle child in a family of 8, television was a cheap resource my mother used to keep me and my siblings occupied. This is not by any means an implication of bad parenting on her part. Television allowed my mother the time she needed to focus on the daily upkeep of our household while my father worked two jobs. My perception of the world at this time was restricted to popular culture and information accessed from basic television. We were raised in the stark landscape of south Los Angeles. The development of self during the social climate of this time was bifurcated by ahome and a street identity. Survival was contingent on the path chosen, and that decision would impact the accessibility of a future. It was a trickle-down system. Drug cartels, such as “La M”, also known as the Mexican mafia,recruited kids into gang culture and employed them as distributors. Options were limited when I was young; in my opinion, you were either in a gang, a member of themiddle class, or part of the working poor. I worked early on in my life. My father worked weekends, outside of his two regular jobs; he moonlighted as a server/bartender for upscale events in Beverly Hills. I learned how to mix a decent 7/7 (Seagrams and 7-up) cocktail by the time I was 12. We worked a 14-hour shift on Saturdays. My exposure to the wealth and class difference between my family and those that we served at these events still informs how I view the world. After our shift, my father and I would share a “Big Mac” sandwich from McDonald’s. I remember my achingfeet and the numbness in my back, but neither seemed to bother me because the moments with my father andthe feel-good chemicals in the food made the work worth it. 3 The bond we shared during these meals gave me an appreciation for the work he performed and the time he spent away from his family.