Mano-Made: New Expression in Craft by Latino Artists Jaime Guerrero

JAIME GUERRERO
MANO-MADE: NEW EXPRESSION IN CRAFT
JAIME GUERRERO
MANO-MADE: NEW EXPRESSION IN CRAFT
Facetiously playing off of stereotypes
of Chicanos from East L.A., the
personalities of these droll plastic
caricatures were conveyed through
gesture, clothing, posture, and facial
expression. Guerrero translated the
Homies into glass along with all of
their idiosyncrasies, inflating them
from a few inches to over a foot in
height. In doing so, it initiated a new
pathway of figurative investigation
for him.
Around the same period, his pop
Luchadores series of Mexican wrestling
masks memorialized the vivid
disguises that transform pro wrestlers
into their competing personae. In the
vein of the work of Einar and Jamex
de la Torre, as described by curator
Tina Oldknow as “MexicaniDada,”
Guerrero continued his involvement
with the iconography of Chicano
contemporary culture. 1 Guerrero
recontextualizes these prop masks
as modern idolatry, elevating each
mask on its own pristine pedestal
and mounting them in the same
manner that museums display their
anthropological, ancient treasures.
The fan base surrounding luchadores
has as much adoration for the theatrical
sport as prior cultures had for
the battles of their own warriors
and gladiators.
Over the past ten years, Guerrero
has explored icons and heroes both
with humor and sincerity. Guerrero
engages the idea of artifact as record—
both those of antiquity and those that
serve as physical documents of
contemporary culture. He straddles
this continuum, seeking out both the
sacred and the profane as equally
indicative of who we are as a culture.
Homies (left to right): Lencho, Chuy & His Pit and Mario
Mascaras Installation
1
Oldknow, Tina,
'MexicaniDada’: The
de la Torres’ Fine Art of
Sacrifice, Einar & Jamex
de la Torre: Intersecting
Time and Place, Museum
of Glass: International
Center for Contemporary
Art, Tacoma, Washington,
2005, p. 8
Idolos (top left to
bottom right): Relic,
Olmec Head and
Female Seated Figure
Farm Worker
2
Addison, Laura M.,
Flux: Reflections on
Contemporary Glass,
New Mexico Museum
of Art, Santa Fe, 2008,
p. 22-41
He has formed links between idolatry of
ancient civilizations and the folklore and
legends of popular culture today. In part,
Guerrero excavates the significance of
the modern relic and in addition, how
glass comes into play as “artifactitude,” 2 a
term coined by curator Laura M. Addison
to characterize glass representations of
stone or ceramic archaeological treasures
as generated by artists including
luminary William Morris.
In his ongoing series of spiritual idols,
which he began around 2008, he replicates
serene statuettes, busts and
masks of the ancient American cultures.
He reincarnates them for this day and
age when we may need these reminders
of the flux and survival of human civilization
the most. Taking cues from Morris
and others who referenced worldwide
mythology for universal implications,
Guerrero reclaims the idolatry and history
of his own ancestral roots. These ancient
deities, iconic figures and mythical beings
take on renewed lives and power in the
hands of a postcolonial Chicano artist.
They also lead us to reconsider who the
enduring heroes and heroines that represent
this day and age may be.
In his more recent work, he has fully
committed himself to illuminating the heroic
bravery of those migrating to start new
lives in the U.S. His masterful Farm Worker
from 2014 was an incomparable achievement
of method and technique that lionizes
the anonymous migrant laborer in larger
than life scale. His looming figure, arms
raised in submission and with religious
overtones, speaks to those who are
criminalized for leaving their homes and
families to seek opportunities offered in
other places. Guerrero uses his work to
create dialogue about vilification and
incarceration of people of color and the
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