Rob Fatal: THE BUDDY SYSTEM
August 22 to September 24, 2016
Reception Thursday September 8, 2016 at 5:30 pm; Artist Talk at 6:30 pm
As an activist, educator and artist of Native American, Xican@ and queer roots I have found community and culture to be my greatest artistic inspiration. To create with the collective minds of unique individuals is a practice that brings to me a great spiritual catharsis; a feeling of joy and power tied to the realization of what people working together can accomplish when in harmony: a home, a shared reality, justice, and healing. As such, my art practice is primarily tied to mediums that necessitate community participation: filmmaking, video art, performance, large-scale installations, and curating. The looks of my work are as diverse the communities who create them, but most contain a sense of macabre, camp, Xican@/Native sensibility: A feature length, all drag sequel to the 1984 Chicano classic La Bamba; A projection mapping video aimed at the floor displaying a shadow entombed in flowers and candles made as memory to our fallen trans and queer Latin@ brothers and sisters who have been largely ignored by society; a marathon Dia de los Muertos dance party and VJ installation set to the music of all dead musicians complete with an Eazy E pinata. As a result our creative collaborations are mutual investigations into the unknown depth of our cultures, identities, desires, fears, joys and communities. See his work at: www.vimeo.com/RobFatal