Travis Boyer SIGNAL IN PRINT A fan who became a friend a nd a n em ployee— and t hen an obsess ed, dis gruntled ex em ploy ee—s hot a nd kille d th e singer Selena Q uin tanill a Pére z (kn o wn as Se lena) in 1995 , a t a Days Inn in Corpus Ch risti, Texas, wh en the b elove d “Quee n of Tejano ” w as just twenty three, and the T exa s b orn art ist Travis Boy er was sixtee n. He was a fan , t oo. For h is exhibition at Signal Gallery in Br ooklyn this sum m er, titled “ Ahora y N un ca” ( Now an d Never), B oyer mine d a lon g stan ding daydream to present an array ofSelena memorabilia, including an only partially visible treasure trove of Selena related ephemera and merchandise neatly packed in six transparent storage bins (The Boyer Family Archive of Selena Quintanilla Miscellany, 1996–2017), alongside mysterious and richly textured original objects: vibrant saddle blankets, copper and silver hand mirrors, and luminous paintings on silk. There was a mournful undercurrent to the uncrowded installation of artworks and archival materials, but Boyer elided explicit reference to the tragic, traumatic fact of Selena’s murder Travis Boyer, Astrodome Hustle, 2017, cotton, —as well as the limits of conventional memorialization—to make way wool, natural dyes, faux pearls, rhinestones, and for a nuanced response to the wistful, generative question, “What if sequins handwoven in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, she had lived?” with master dyer and weaver Mariano Sosa Martinez at the Biidaüü Weaving Collective, 96 x 42 x 42". A t the tim e of her de ath, Se l ena wa s po ise d to be co m e a p o p cr oss over sensation. Having achieved u np reced e nted s u ccess as a wom an in the m ale d om ina ted w orld of Tejano music, while also bringing the L atin su bgen re be yon d its tr a ditio na l M exi can an d M e xican Am eric an markets, she’d begun recording her fi rs t E ngli sh la n guag e album. S h e had al s o recen t ly opened, t o mu ch fanfare, a pair of South Texas bou tique s, which c arried h er line of cl othing a nd acc essorie s and o ffered corresponding services, aptly nam ed Selena E tc. (It was th e ma nager of her store s, Yolanda Sal dívar, who killed her.)Boyer’s frag men tary, abstracte d fantas y of the s uperst ar’s survival , howeve r, has little to do with a ny like ly care er trajec tory for her as a m usician or entre pr ene ur from this p oint. Ins tead , h e d raws ou t the qu i eter qualit ies and p otentia ls under lying the stir ring perfo rmances an d flamboya n t glamour of his subject—her collabor ative etho s, defiant se lf fas hionin g, and lo ve of cra ft and m aterials. Boyer’s delicate chains of as sociati on zigzag through out t he sho w to c onnect his li fe and art practice to Selena’s. Carna tion Bandan a, 2 004, is c r edit ed to the a rtist and S ean Sla tte ry an d id entified as an im ag e from a n “ amateu r fashio n s ho o t.” In it , a s erious, s hirtle ss bo y mod el s a n ipple grazing “ban dana ,” a lush garmen t mad e f r o m pe ach an d cora l flo we r s a nd d es ig ned by B oyer m o re t han a decade ago . Resem blin g both a halter top an d a brea s t p lat e , it re calls the once cont rov e rs i al, bej ew ele d bustiers ha n dmade by Selena , but belongs to a different, distinctly queer, strain of risqué. Beneath the framed print, Los Angeles Light Box, 2017, a shrine like le dge ado rn ed with silk flow ers, illu mina ted tw o rare vintage slides o f S elena m ugging for the came ra, taken by an unknow n backstag e ph otograp her in 1 994, with a loup e provid ed. Such intimate vignettes o rbit ed around the exhibition’s most co mm anding works: the han dwoven equ e stria n blankets. Th ese bo ld, distille d renderings of the si nger ’s mo st m emorable performance outfits are substantial, tactile cre ati ons of wool and cotton, brightened by seq u ins, rhine stones, and faux pearls. The deep purp le a nd bu rgu ndy Astrod ome Hu stle, 2017, c omm emorat es the flare legged , crisscross topped jumpsuit she wore for her iconic final per form a nce; the go lde n Days Inn, 2017, porten to usly inco rporate s the mote l chain’s l ogo behind her dancin g studde d c owboy boots. The bl anke ts, tossed over sculp tural retail displa y racks , were ma de in collabo ration with the Oa xaca, M exico –bas ed B iidaüü W eaving Collective, a group Boyer ha s liv ed an d worked with. To consider t hese works a s the hypothetic al produc ts of Selena E tc.—had its n am esak e liv ed to ove rse e its evolutio n—is to imagine a radic al dive rgence from the sweatshop prod uction mod e of mos t c eleb rity branded apparel. That’s the k ind of q uix o tic specul ati on encourage d her e. F or Boy er, Selen a’s death is a ssoc iated w ith anoth er Texas d ream cut sho rt , the de mocratic gover nors hip of Ann R ichards. S he w as defeated after one term by Georg e W. B ush, ma rking the beginn ing, as th e artist ’s pr ess release reads, of “the g radual dissolution of a visio n of continen ta l econ om ic solida rity and cult ura l inclusiv en ess,” which culminate, you could say, in the hysterical wall building rhetoric of today. In light of this, the artist’s anti dystopian vision, articulated through bittersweet handmade works and personal archives, is a welcome testament to the power of creative fandom, and to the seismic import of a Selena scale hero. —Joha nna Fate m an Goings on About Town … Explore ART GALLERIES—CHELSEA Travis Boyer Vogt 958 Madison Ave. Uptown 212-226-6966 Website !" #$% &'"()*"+ %',' )-./+0 1'2*30 4 2'/"5 6*74%8.'3"0 9*: ;'3<8.4%*) 43+$%+0 5$=*% >4$"+$"5 '" =*,=*+ 4 5'') "4?* $" 4 %*3$*% '@ ./3"$%#*)8,''<$"50 ,''%*,2 5*'?*+3$& 4.%+34&+$'"%A 6#*%* 43* *7# $.$+ *) 4,'"5%$ )* 4 53'/> ' @ /"%+3 * +&#*) & 24"'+2>*% ' " $")$ 5' %$,<0 >3$" +*)B /%$"5 "4+/34, ,$ 5#+ $" '/+) ' '3 ,'& 4+$'"% @3' ? C$3* !%, 4") +' D'%#/4 63**B :$+# + #* %$,#'/*+ +*% '@ .*,+% & ',,*&+*) @3'? +#* 43+$%+E% @3$*")% 4" ) ,'=*3% A 6* "%$'"% .*+: **" ,/7/32 4 ") <$+%&#0 )*,$ &4&2 4") %:455* 30 4") $"+$?4 &2 4") +#3* 4+ 43* >4, >4.,* A F' 3* &'"+ 3$= *) $% 4 % *,*&+$'" '@ % +*3, $"58%$,=*3 " *+$ >'+% 4") )''3< "'. %0 *?.* ,,$%#*)0 G'/ +#:*%+* 3" %+2,*0 : $+# .*,+ ./&<,* %A 6# *%* 43* #*4=28# 4")* ) $"='&4+$'" % '@ +#3*%# ',)% 4") $"+* 3$'3%0 @ 3'? +#* . ') $, 2 4") +#* 43 &#$+*&+/34, +' + #* * 3'+$&A 6#3'/5# H* &A IJA ! "#$ %$& '() *$) SUBSCRIBE FASHION This Brooklyn Artist Paints Selena as a Fashion Entrepreneur BY RACHEL HAHN June 16, 2017 When you think of the late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, maybe it’s her risqué onstage costumes that first spring to mind, or even flashes of Jennifer Lopez’s portrayal of the pop star in the 1997 biopic Selena. While Selena’s penchant for sequined bras and bedazzled jackets earned her the unofficial (and somewhat reductive) moniker of the “Tejano Madonna,” textile artist Travis Boyer’s new exhibition “Ahora y Nunca” (showing until July 9 at the Bushwick gallery Signal) emphasizes a critically undervalued aspect of Selena’s legacy: As the head of Selena Etc., a small South Texas chain of boutiques and salons that housed her personal clothing line, Selena was a bona fide entrepreneur. Sewn within the seams of Selena Etc.’s business-like dresses and glossy suits was an aspiration of the late ’90s, a dream that she hoped would cross borders, cultures, and socioeconomic divides. Texas-born Boyer had been a Selena fan since he was a kid (she died when he was just 16), but as an adult artist his collection of Selena-brand clothing, catalogs, and memorabilia rapidly expanded over the months he spent in Norway for an artist’s residency. Feeling disconnected from his roots, Boyer went deeper into the cult of Selena fandom. He found himself staying up late browsing Selena-branded items on eBay and Instagram. For the exhibition, he’s neatly displayed his substantial collection in clear plastic bins in the gallery’s back room, evoking the feeling of an artfully formalized storage unit. SUBSCRIBE Travis Boyer, Install shot of Ahora y Nunca Photo: Timothy Doyan / Courtesy of SIGNAL Gallery This vast archive of Selena material served as inspiration for the original paintings and sculptures of “Ahora y Nunca,” which translates to “now and never.” The objects Boyer created stem from his vision of an alternate historical timeline beginning just before Selena’s death in 1995, after which her clothing line and boutiques began to taper off.