Two artists found a way to bridge the gap between the United States and Mexico before they even met.
An innovative artistic residency program allowed Estrella Payton, of Phoenix, and Gabriel Rico, of Guadalajara, to swap communities, create dialogue between their countries and bring their own arts culture to a new place.
The artists are the first participants in the GDL-PHX Residencias Artísticas, a program, organized by the ASU Art Museum, the Celebración Artística de las Américas (CALA) Alliance and the Programa Anual de Open Studios de Guadalajara, is a cultural exchange in which local artists from the two cities receive fully-sponsored artist residencies in the other city.
On Tuesday, Payton and Rico shared the experiences of their residencies in the ASU Art Museum Project Space at Combine Studios, the home base of ASU’s international artist residency programs. The small ground-floor room was packed with at least 50 friends, family, art enthusiasts and community members.
“Buenas noches, bienvenidos,” began Julio César Morales, curator of the ASU Art Museum. He introduced the artists and gave brief descriptions; Rico is a Guadalajara-based multimedia artist, and Payton a Phoenix-based interdisciplinary artist.
The residencias artísticas are designed to bring together the many Latino groups in Phoenix. The program is open to any mid-career Phoenix Latino artist, said CALA Alliance Executive Director Casandra Hernández. The objective is to develop projects and present public programs that establish dialogue between the two cities, especially through collaboration with local communities.
“What does it mean for investing in these kind of connections at a moment where everything around us tells us that we are not to be connected?” Hernández said. “In this first year, everything was a question… I’m really excited for year two, three and 20 of the residency.”
Although the first two artists completed their residencies this year, the program was actually conceived before much of the recent political tension between the United States and Mexico, with President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto trading barbs over payment for a border wall.
“When we started this program it was a different time. Trump wasn’t president,” Guadalajara-based artist and program co-founder Eduardo Sarabia said.
Rico, who specializes in contemporary installations, said he joined the program because he believes in its power to unify.
“I applied to this residency because I believe the art, at this point in the history between the United States and Mexico, is like the bridge — or like the tunnel — over the wall,” Rico said.
During his time in Phoenix, Rico completed two installations: DEAD, DEAD, LIVE, DEAD and Muere, Vivo. Both featured taxidermy and objects found around Phoenix.
Rico spoke about the personal opportunity the program offered him, specifically referencing the expensive and rare ASU taxidermy collection, something he never could have had access to in Guadalajara.
He hopes his art can be a bridge not only between countries, but between factions of
communities. For example, he explained the way he worked with ASU’s taxidermy
collection made it accessible to the general public, not just career academics.
Meanwhile, Payton began her residency walking around the city of Guadalajara, gaining personal knowledge of her surroundings and searching for patterns in the city.
On her walks, she collected designs from wrought iron fencing that covers the fronts of many stores and houses in Mexico, as well as photos of a common street sign: a dot with four arrows surrounding it titled punto de reunión, or “meeting place.”
“Walking is a slow way of getting to know a space,” Payton said. Her goal was to make viewers question how they should act in a space using those patterns and turn viewers into participants. Her art concerns the right to exist in and leave a mark on a space.
Payton, who was born in Puerto Rico, said she often questions her right to leave a mark on spaces in the United States. Her art is meant to show viewers they have a right to exist and leave a lasting impression.
“As somebody who speaks Spanglish, I’m in between,” Payton said. She was drawn to Phoenix because of its border proximity, which she believes forces the city to live on the “front lines” of identity issues, just as she does.
Phoenix resident Kristy Furr, who came to the presentation with her wife, was especially interested in Payton’s contribution. “It’s nice to see that not just one group of people is incorporating Latino culture into America,” Furr, who has in-laws from Puerto Rico, said.
Tempe-based contemporary artist Oliverio Balcells was one of the candidates for the Phoenix to Guadalajara residency. Although he was not selected, he bore no resentment.
“Most of us know the other artists, and I’m just happy that anyone gets it,” Balcells, who has worked with the CALA Alliance in the past, said. “It’s a really nice experience, to go to another country and just do art.”
Contact the reporter at Anya.Magnuson@asu.edu.
