SPORT/ Becky Blast

2019 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

28 x 21 cm

Karla Kaplun

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Studying the body in movement, this series of drawings depart from Karla Kaplun’s work A ztec BLAST® Workout (AWB) . Taking the form of a fitness training program, this work critically explores issues of cultural appropriation, focusing on the traditional “Conchero” Aztec dance. The Concheros dance—also known as the Chichimecas, Aztecas and Mexicas—is an important traditional dance and ceremony which has been performed in Mexico since early in the country’s colonial period. The drawings SPORT/Becky Blast and SPORT/Cookie Blast feature bodies in abject and contorted poses. The work blends together movements from the traditional “Conchero” Aztec dance with bodybuilding gym routines and the aesthetic of wellness boutiques. For the artist, an important part of the process has been to observe bodies performing these physical activities in an attempt to subdue them in the partiality of their poses; to freeze them in order to replicate the movement of their effort. Kalpun highlights the consequences of cultural appropriation and whitewashing by portraying caucasian figures rather than bodies of indigenous people, incorporating images of Nike’s shoes, and assigning titles like Becky and Cookie. This body of work also addresses the Mexican government’s strategy, used in the post-revolutionary era, to instrumentalize the Conchero Dance as a propaganda tool to construct a ‘Mexican identity’.

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Karla Kaplun’s practice centers on micro-utopias, the construction and functioning of collective memory, as well as mechanisms of political and economic power and control. Kaplun’s multimedia practice includes drawing, painting, collage, video, and participatory workshops and often evokes a theatrical feeling through poetic images. Kaplun’s work explores the idea of Mexican cultural syncretism and the construction of cultural identity (often instrumentalized by governments) and creates new possibilities in language and representation. A starting point of her research has frequently been the origins of the Mexican Baroque, and the ways in which local crafts and indigenous cultures and its arts have influenced European settlements throughout Mexico’s colonial history.

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Colors:

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• appropriation.n.03
• dance.n.01
• autochthonal.s.01
• body.n.01
• identity.n.01
• politics.n.01