Armando Guadalupe Cortés was born in Urequío, Michoacán, México and raised in Wilmington, California. He graduated with an MFA from Yale School of Art 2021 and a BA from UCLA in 2012 . ¿Y LA GENTE? from 2020, blends sculpture and performance to explore themes of memory, myth, history, geography, experience and materiality.
¿Y LA GENTE? (And the People?)
2020
Installation and performance
Clay, earth, iron oxides, stoneware
Each pillar 64” x 24” x 24”
During the performance of ¿Y LA GENTE? Cortes excavates the rammed earth columns surrounded by musicians and dancers of his native Mexican heritage. Once revealing a gold ceramic sculpture within each column, one resembling a nopal cactus and the other a milling stone, Cortes exits the gallery leaving the deconstructed pillars to remain for the rest of the exhibition.
Through blending performance and sculpture, he is able to question the dichotomy between myth and fiction as an antonym to history. Growing up in two worlds has lead Cortés to a fantastical take on the ordinary. He incorporates the multitude of symbols and identities from his family of farmers, migrants, manufacturers, office professionals, and professors in his material palette and choice of dress. In contrasting the mythical or in this case the colorful and culturally rich materiality with his business casual clothing, he illustrates the parallelism and tension within his life and work. This re-assembling of materials and cultural symbolism is crucial to how Cortes seeks to challenging notions of spectacle and viewership.
Sources:
Artist Website: https://armandogcortes.com/Y-LA-GENTE-2020
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/402306364?fl=pl&fe=cm
Bemis Center: https://www.bemiscenter.org/residents/armando_guadalupe_cort%C3%A9s