In a room way much smaller than yours, small particles of spray paint cans smoothly float across the ceiling. You’re in a neon acid trip, you’re in this moment, dwelling in the mind of El Zarate, an artist whose hands and thoughts work as one. As his perception becomes distorted, his creativity reaches its peak and in that glorious pinnacle, he finished Sumajestad lamonkimotarasposidad (‘Your Majesty lamonkimotarasposidad’)
Ten years ago, the mind and hands of Rodrigo Zárate Escobar –a Mexican artist graduated from National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City– began the labor of turning everything humanity has endured into cartoons. He depicts prostitution, homophobia, pedophilia, violence, pornography, among others, in acidic and transgressive paintings. Carne Negra (‘Black Meat’) is a series of paintings that were exhibited in ArtSpace Mexico, where this artist stands out due to his provocative and honest images.
It’s no coincidence that each of these canvases looks as if they’ve come from a psychedelic trip, because as Zárate paints, he’s under the influence of drugs. He takes on the challenge to portray what cannot be expressed in words into daring visual representations. He fuses substances and materials to reflect his creativity and be able to translate the collective imagination into art.
For his first exhibition, he painted all the walls white to contrast with his colorful paintings. He introduced the spectator with a short story –of course, as controversial, as his art itself–, where he played with the idea of power, ego, and abuse. By doing so, he showed how both main genders, female and male, were part of a normalized social construct.
During this introduction, Zárate tells the story of a powerful and alluring woman who controls men through her physical attributes, only to be punished, later on, by her own judgment. Once she doubts about her strength, men seize control once again. Together they try to pretend that there’s a balance between phallocentrism and feminism. Finally, that channel of communication is broken due to the censorship of the upcoming generation, and so, the cycle repeats itself.
During this inevitable struggle for power and this relentless quest for pleasure, a hedonistic creature –that at the end of the day ends up dominating both men and women– is created. This Epicurean exacerbation is the one that allows us to enjoy and suffer at the same time. Our selfishness to reach the upmost pleasure becomes an obsession, like a drug we can’t stop consuming. In the same way, the work of this Mexican artist is the ideal product for those consumers who do not know any limits. It’s a virus anyone would endure, an obscene, revolting, and alienated reality we try to escape from, but manages to drag us down even further.
“I’ve been called a pervert, sick, ridiculous, thief, asshole… I’ve been called everything. Well, I don’t give a fuck, at the end of the day, that’s the point. […] That’s what I’m interested in, the freedom to say whatever you want.”
Besides the shocking and controversial themes Zárate explores in his work, the materials he uses for his paintings are also related to the clear and direct intention of disrupting a system he doesn’t agree with. For instance, the canvas where the artist depicts a sandwich made with nuns was made on a fabric he stole from the atrium of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. What’s the point of doing that? The same that lies in all his work: speaking out –through different levels, strokes, and colors– against the things everybody secretly hates but are too afraid to express or rebel.
“[…] it’s all part of transgressing, because you’re modifying your perspective as a social human being that does the ‘right’ thing when you’re taking something that doesn’t belong to you.”
Unveiling and poking fun at the monopolization of power, abusive authorities, and society’s double standards are key elements of Zárate’s work. The author of Carne Negra makes fun of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; it exposes the undeniable and disgusting reality the Church tries to conceal. Zárate always finds the way to distort all those masks we use to disguise reality. Besides the visual source, Rodrigo uses slang to describe or name his paintings to make the spectator feel identified and understand the series.
“Inside the visual language you can build this idea and translate it to make people feel offended, but at the same time attracted to it. It happens because it’s something everybody thinks, but they don’t really see it as I do. Of course, the point is to be transgressive.”
Zárate’s sketches are also an important part of the exhibition. These are arranged as if they were a series of windows from which the spectator can appreciate everyday scenes that make us all uncomfortable. Art became a need for this artist who required a medium to understand and accept his own reality. Throughout the white walls of the exhibition, he drew with black ink part of the shit that surrounds us but makes us awaken as social beings.
“This is an analysis of reality, but seen as I see it. It’s an awakening because all this actually exists.”
That’s the aesthetic and the meaning behind each of Zárate’s strokes. It’s like a sting that burns and damages our throats. Sexuality, drugs, misogyny, violence, religion, and all those things society uses as a medium to abuse others are what the artist observes, investigates, and studies. After a dose of psychotropic substances and a long walk, these subjects become art through techniques that portray acid colors, distorted faces, grotesque bodies, and serious messages.
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Source:
“Carne Negra” Exhibition at ArtSpace México
Interview with Rodrigo Zárate for Cultura Colectiva
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Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
