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Charlie James Gallery is delighted to current a solo exhibition of works by Los Angeles-based artist Elmer Guevara titled Home Cash, on view by means of September 16, 2023.
Elmer Guevara’s work attracts expertise from his life as a Salvadoran from South Central Los Angeles. Guevara’s newest present Home Cash, pulls reference from the home and Ursula Ok. Leguin’s The Provider Bag Principle of Fiction, during which she defines a binary of tales; the story of heroes and the opposite being the story of containers. She defines containers as non-heroes which inform the tales of mundanity and assortment. Like many different Central Individuals residing in Los Angeles, Guevara’s household fled El Salvador through the civil struggle, one which america authorities orchestrated. Because of Guevara’s familial historical past his work layers containers, areas, and reminiscences to showcase the non-heroes and their tales of gathering.
By 5 work, small combined media work and several other drawings Guevara permits for the viewer to gaze into his personal understanding of dwelling. Safety is Beneath the Mattress depicts Guevara’s father, taking a nap on a hammock by a window. Under him we discover a wide range of toys and different home items laid throughout the ground. Beneath the ground, we are able to see a doll house-like depiction of the home, during which the crawl house is opened up for viewership, throughout the crawl house, there are two shoe packing containers, or within the context of Le Guin’s concept, there are two containers, one with a stack of cash and a gun inside, one other field sits subsequent to it with a stack of money inside. It’s not an unusual apply for immigrant mother and father to stash cash or essential paperwork below a mattress or in a sock drawer, or on this case below a floorboard, particularly for individuals who come from unstable international locations the place banks aren’t probably the most dependable. This portray of Guevara’s father factors to the protection supplied inside their dwelling; the place his father serenely sleeps above the household’s nest egg like a protecting hen.
Taken from an outdated picture of the artist as a toddler, Younger Grasshopper reveals Guevara sporting a Lakers jersey and a Walkman surrounded by rows of houses painted purple and gold, whereas the Goodyear blimp will be seen floating within the background, Guevara carries with him a shoebox stuffed along with his personal childhood valuables; a Gameboy, Spider-Man buying and selling playing cards and two small stacks of cash, these objects work to color an image of younger Guevara’s childhood pursuits. In Final Days within the Flop Guevara paints a scene of the artist enjoying a sport of pool inside the house, presumably on the primary ground of the home, whereas Guevara performs pool the Chicano traditional American Me (1992), is on TV. On the second ground we see a tattered Salvadoran flag by a window in addition to the rear of a black canine and a white canine will be seen strolling in reverse instructions of each other atop two shoe packing containers of money. Whereas these packing containers aren’t so hidden, they’re nonetheless protected by their house owners in safe areas.
Dried up on a Sunday reveals Guevara’s youthful brother, Alex specified by mattress recovering from a hangover from the Saturday earlier than. Seen within the background are a half drunk bottle of Corona and the leftover wrappers of a McDonald’s breakfast. Sporting solely shorts, Alex’s pores and skin is seen and bears faint photographs harking back to tattoos nevertheless, upon nearer look, we see that these aren’t tattoos however photographs taken from familial reminiscences and photographs. Utilizing a gel switch course of, Guevara takes household photographs, warps them to suit the pores and skin of his topics and transfers these scenes onto their our bodies. Born two years previous to the top of the Salvadoran Civil Struggle, Guevara, and lots of different Central American estadounidense (Individuals) exist within the liminal post-memory technology; the place although their our bodies could maintain reminiscences of a traumatic previous, their minds don’t essentially do the identical. Although faraway from the precise occasions of the struggle, Guevara and his siblings carry it’s legacy by means of tales, photographs, and generational trauma. Cada día más loco, depicts Guevara and his brother in an intimate pose, as we peer inside by means of a window, Guevara wears a Michael Jordan jersey whereas his brother wears a classic Kobe jersey; pointing in direction of their very own generational GOATs. Whether or not in a heated dialogue or merely strolling previous one another we have no idea, the 2 males appear to be going through away from each other resulting from some cause unbeknownst to the viewers. Whereas two Nike packing containers sit on the highest shelf of a closet, this picture doesn’t have the identical opacity as the opposite shoe packing containers all through Home Cash and we have no idea the riches that they might maintain; this story is a personal one for less than Guevara and his brother to share.
Home Cash, the titular work of this present, is a combined media work of an orange Nike shoebox which transparently reveals the contents of this container which holds inside it money, one other pseudo-bank in Guevara’s work. My first dangle exterior the block reveals the younger Guevara in the identical pose as Younger Grasshopper, probably reflecting on his personal previous as soon as Recorded jams from the Radio reveals younger Guevara along with his Walkman, this time smiling in his room. Any little one of the 90’s remembers the enjoyment of taping your favourite track on the radio over to your personal private cassette to keep away from the price of shopping for a whole album. Los dos compadres as soon as once more honors Guevara’s household and their historical past, depicting his father and his father’s finest pal he reveals the intimacy between two male pals who’s closeness is even seen of their matching kinds. In a sequence of oil works titled Sketch no. 9, no.5 and no. 10 present a number of Etch a Sketch drawings of scenes from household photographs, in contrast to the picture tattoos on his different topics these sketches level to the ephemerality of reminiscence in addition to the imprints it leaves, as irrespective of how exhausting you shake an Etch a Sketch clear, the traces of the previous stay.
–Textual content by Leah Perez
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