DEFIANT CHRONICLES

DEFIANT CHRONICLES
April 30 – July 24, 2011

This exhibition, co-curated by MOLAA Curator Idurre Alonso and Slanguage Founders Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz, focuses on representing current strategies for artistic production derived and influenced by urban and street art including graffiti, stencil and stickers. The exhibition is comprised of two multi-mixed media installations by artists aka, Acamonchi from Tijuana, Mexico, and Los Angeles-based artist aka, Perl from the graffiti female collective FDS (From the Streets).

Both of the invited artists share a similar concern for utilizing artistic tactics of research-based projects, documentation and investigation. The exhibition redefines the traditional approach to street art/graffiti as a practice that is meant to be singled-out from its place and context, exclusive to an insider audience, and breaks the conception of urban art as a male
dominated art form that rarely addresses gender issues on its content.

Perl researches and documents any kind of historical building, streets, neighborhoods, old signs, landmarks, alleys, or abandoned buildings for her artistic practice. She uses the research to develop blog posts, photos, walking tours, among other forms of cultural production. On the other hand Acamonchi, who launched the first Mexican Mail Art website in 1995 and became known for his downloadable stencils, has been using street installation and graffiti as a critical forum. Acamonchi was heavily influenced by images in old magazines, fanzines and the skateboard-punk countercultures; his work usually addresses gender issues including a critical view of the notion of “the ideal woman” commonly promoted by the media.