Typical Weapons
2007 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
Dimensions Variable
Alejandro Marré
Typical Weapons is a series of sculptural interventions where Alejandro Marre transforms traditional Guatemalan craft objects usually sold as souvenirs into weapons. Wooden flutes, hacky sacks, and musical instruments are woven with rope to appear as nunchucks, slingshots, and other forms of armament. Designed to be exhibited as objects from an archaeological museum, the previously innocuous representations of Guatemalan popular culture acquire darker meanings as they come to symbolize the brutality and extreme violence that now mark the country. Representing Guatemala just as much as the souvenirs they are made of, Typical Weapons are icons of a culture in which violence and disrespect for human life have become deeply rooted.
Alejandro Marre belongs to a generation of artists who transformed the Guatemalan artistic scene immediately after a devastating Civil War that lasted over 36 years. A seminal work by Marre is a performance that took place in the year 2000 during the festival Octubre Azul in which the artist married a cow as his alter ego Doctor Virus, a character he assumed to expose macho, toxic masculinity and gender inequality in the institution of marriage. Other works by the artist also take their cue from tradition, misusing it as a means to address complex themes. On a series of traditional Guatemalan paintings, Marre overlaid motifs from popular Western television characters such as Barney the Dinosaur and Teletubbies as an analogy for the impact and cultural dominance that first world countries have in the third world. He has also subverted other ‘artesanias’ — craft objects which are the product of communitary cultural identity — to speak of the conflict and violence that has gripped his country for decades.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » ARTS EQUATOR
How Dép Tổ Ong Goes From Timeless Family Keepsake to Millennial Icon (via Saigoneer) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles September 16, 2018 Back in 2014, amid the weekly cycle of news, a particular image was more striking than most: Doctor and Professor Ngo Bao Chau stood in the middle of a makeshift classroom in a rural village in Thai Nguyen Province while teaching local kids...
© » IMA
the amana collection Exhibit 05 – Daisuke Yokota | Exhibition | IMA ONLINE the amana collection Exhibit 05 – Daisuke Yokota 14 December 2019 - 20 January 2020 IMA gallery TAGS IMA gallery Daisuke Yokota Share © Daisuke Yokota_untitled_from Color Photographs Where does the photographic process begin and where does it end? Often the making of a photograph is considered to be a momentary event: the instant when the shutter is released and a photosensitive element is exposed thereby recording the physicality of reality...
© » KADIST
Kelly Sinnapah Mary
2021Notebook 10 , l ‘enfance de sanbras (The Childhood of Sanbras) series by Kelly Sinnapah Mary is a sequel to an earlier series by the artist titled Cahier d’un non retour au pays natal (2015)...
© » KADIST
Seeing Sound , a traveling exhibition organized by ICI With works by Marina Rosenfeld, Aura Satz, and Samson Young, curated by Barbara London, founder of the Video-media Exhibition and Collection Programs at MoMA, New York Seeing Sound is a series of exhibitions that explores sound as a material and dynamic branch of contemporary art practices...
© » KADIST
Bady Dalloul
2015Bady Dalloul’s Scrapbook is a 48 minute video beginning from his birth, tracing major global events of the 20 th century, including the beginning and current Occupation and colonization of Palestine, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, assassination of family members and the Syrian diaspora...
© » KADIST
Annette Kelm
2013Percent for Art is seemingly concerned with “art enrichment” by state or city arts agencies role in it, managing the artist rosters, maintaining public art collections, commissioning artworks, selecting installation sites, among other things for aesthetic and cultural enhancement in both public and private real estate developments...
© » ARTSJOURNAL
'Get the Picture' is a cheeky dive into the art world's 'strategic snobbery' : NPR Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player 'Get the Picture' is a cheeky dive into the art world's 'strategic snobbery' First of all, can we stop using the word "liminal"? Bianca Bosker spent five years doing in-depth research for Get the Picture — an irreverent book about "strategic snobbery" in the art world...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (18 - 24 February 2019) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do February 18, 2019 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Bandung and Jakarta from 18-24 February 2019 To celebrate the TiTian Art Space’s 3rd Anniversary, the art space and organization presents EXPLORATION , a group exhibition that serves also as an initiative to encourage artists to break boundaries...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (3 – 9 Sept 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do September 3, 2018 Merdeka State of Mind documentary screenings , at APW, 8 & 9 Sept, 8pm A celebration of freedom of expression in Bangsar, this festival features two nights of timely documentary screenings: the subjects of child brides in Malaysia, and the Orang Asli blockades currently under siege in Kelantan...
© » KADIST
Cian Dayrit
2018Yuta Nagi Panaad (Promised Land) by Cian Dayrit addresses the impacts of the globalized economy and its powerful ideology on the spaces of everyday life...
