Sitting on Chrome — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:00foreign
3. 0:04[Music]
4. 0:26sitting on chrome is a collaborative
5. 0:29exhibition together with Maria Ayala and
6. 0:33Guadalupe Rosales the exhibit is
7. 0:35conceptualized and organized around her
8. 0:39Loop and Mario and I have been talking
9. 0:40about
10. 0:41how we've experienced lowrider car
11. 0:44cruising and how we experience low rider
12. 0:46cars
13. 0:47are individual practices come from
14. 0:50different places and are materializing
15. 0:52ideas in very specific ways
16. 0:56there is an overlap in terms of like how
17. 0:59we know the city that we've grown up in
18. 1:01and also the culture that we're
19. 1:04gesturing towards
20. 1:06and then obviously we'll change the
21. 1:08photos right yeah yeah it's like a
22. 1:10bright
23. 1:12it's almost like that the exhibit will
24. 1:16open with a mural that the three of us
25. 1:19are collaborating on so
26. 1:22the mural is the building off of
27. 1:26a project that Lupe did and it's um this
28. 1:30incredible like immersive installation
29. 1:33where you transform like The Concourse
30. 1:36of the museum into like the exterior of
31. 1:39a low rider car essentially
32. 1:42I have been sitting with this idea of
33. 1:46the hybridity
34. 1:48not just within like the culture of like
35. 1:50the lowrider culture but also as like
36. 1:52queerness you know but also
37. 1:56really like accepting or understanding
38. 1:59like the low rate culture as this like
39. 2:01patriarchal
40. 2:03Super Hyper masculine
41. 2:06environment that starts to feel like
42. 2:09it excludes certain people I guess like
43. 2:11with the art like what that we're making
44. 2:13that I'm making it is creating that
45. 2:15Sanctuary or space for my body you know
46. 2:19we all have like a relationship to these
47. 2:21ideas and questions and Aesthetics
48. 2:23there's like honoring
49. 2:26throughout the whole exhibition but I
50. 2:28feel like there's also moments where
51. 2:29we're like
52. 2:30introducing something that's like queer
53. 2:33that I don't think is necessarily a new
54. 2:35thing but I think the way that we're
55. 2:37introducing this aspect it feels
56. 2:39important that we're doing it
57. 2:42you know I resonate with that feeling of
58. 2:43hybridity a lot because low writing is
59. 2:45kind of like America's car history you
60. 2:47know I mean it's like most American
61. 2:49thing you know the hybridity of like
62. 2:51multiple uh Aesthetics and like cultures
63. 2:55and to make like one thing you know um
64. 2:58makes it really like uh important for me
65. 3:01to see it that way at least you know
66. 3:03I wonder what kind of cars people are
67. 3:04going to turn into low riders that are
68. 3:06modern cars
69. 3:21San Francisco or the Bay Area
70. 3:24has been this highlighted space for the
71. 3:27tech community and the innovation of
72. 3:29future Technologies
73. 3:30[Music]
74. 3:31and having an interest in car culture
75. 3:35and wanting to have a conversation about
76. 3:38the hybridity of San Francisco's history
77. 3:41and culture I decided to make this
78. 3:44uh Prius that
79. 3:46highlighted those interests
80. 3:48[Music]
81. 3:50low riders and low riding pays a lot of
82. 3:53attention to those uh those attributes
83. 3:55Rafa Lupe and I have within our own
84. 3:58histories
85. 3:59in low writing I think is a vehicle for
86. 4:02exploring those ideas
87. 4:06moving things that exist outside in into
88. 4:09interior spaces uh is a bit complicated
89. 4:13and I think therefore the Rapha Lupe and
90. 4:16I have decided to conceptualize what
91. 4:18that may mean in our own work
92. 4:21I'm not like customizing a car to fit
93. 4:24into the space I'm rather making a
94. 4:26painting of a car that is actually not a
95. 4:28low rider but
96. 4:31this sort of speaking on behalf of a lot
97. 4:33of
98. 4:33um intersections in those worlds so it's
99. 4:36maybe not the the typical low rider
100. 4:39painting but maybe has a lot of language
101. 4:42to share within those worlds
102. 4:44[Music]
103. 4:50thank you
104. 4:51[Music]
105. 4:57so this is a beautiful car here I'm a
106. 4:59writer coming through
107. 5:04the winter Boulevard is like
108. 5:07what Hollywood Boulevard is for certain
109. 5:10people you know
110. 5:11it goes across from Boyle Heights to
111. 5:16way past Pico Rivera and it's predict a
112. 5:21lot one of the longest boulevards
113. 5:23in La it's also a space
114. 5:27that we've used
115. 5:29for cruising
116. 5:32we have been carving out spaces
117. 5:35of not just belonging but also to like
118. 5:38to to socialize because we we don't have
119. 5:41a lot we didn't have a lot of spaces for
120. 5:43us that were made for us you know
121. 5:46so we just took it upon ourselves and
122. 5:49started using the streets
123. 5:51[Music]
124. 6:01thank you
125. 6:04when Rafa invited me and Mario to be
126. 6:08part of the show I had already been
127. 6:10thinking a lot about hybridity
128. 6:13um and also like the modification of
129. 6:16whether it's like our bodies or uh cars
130. 6:20you know low riders and stuff like that
131. 6:22but I also think like what's important
132. 6:24for me is that this is also an
133. 6:28opportunity
134. 6:29to create
135. 6:31um
136. 6:32art that represents me
137. 6:34[Music]
138. 6:42let's see
139. 6:44I've been making different types of like
140. 6:46sculptural portals
141. 6:49um using this this top glass is a
142. 6:54two-way mirror which is oftentimes used
143. 6:57in liquor stores or Banks or things like
144. 6:59that so you can Prevail uh
145. 7:03the stores or liquor stores and so then
146. 7:05like you can't see the other it's like a
147. 7:07mirror on one side and a glass on the
148. 7:08other side
149. 7:10so I was really interested in working
150. 7:12with this material because it did remind
151. 7:14me
152. 7:14of walking into a store and then you
153. 7:17know like being watched and it was
154. 7:20important for me to challenge how
155. 7:24oftentimes we are being put in a box
156. 7:26like literally like this is what
157. 7:27identifies like a latinx or Chicano from
158. 7:30East LA you know and not giving us
159. 7:34um like more room to talk about
160. 7:36complexities
161. 7:40so for the exhibition we're also going
162. 7:42to have a section with archives it kind
163. 7:45of becomes like the spine that connects
164. 7:48the story of low rider cruising but not
165. 7:51just through like a sculptural or
166. 7:52conceptual objects but also
167. 7:55um documents that I collect people
168. 7:57actually have been giving me as part of
169. 8:00my project veteranas and rukas
170. 8:03I really wanted to
171. 8:05create a space to celebrate us to also
172. 8:08talk about the joy of growing up in East
173. 8:11LA and this is one part you know like
174. 8:13this is like the way we socialize
175. 8:15cruising on the boulevard
176. 8:17[Music]
177. 8:28[Music]
178. 8:33yeah I mean Elysian Park is huge it
179. 8:36extends from like
180. 8:37Dodger Stadium all the way out to the
181. 8:39five freeway
182. 8:40and then also like hits the 110.
183. 8:44and we're on the part of the park that
184. 8:47touches like 12 to 175.
185. 8:50but so we're near a disc golf course
186. 8:54[Music]
187. 8:56and there's there are these uh cages
188. 8:59kind of like these
189. 9:01baskets that the players use to kind of
190. 9:03like throw these pucks into
191. 9:05the course has had to kind of been
192. 9:07extended further into this this area
193. 9:11um
194. 9:11where the gay cruising has been
195. 9:13happening for
196. 9:16a few decades and it feels intentional
197. 9:22and so I see it in collaboration with
198. 9:24this effort to eradicate like public
199. 9:27cruising
200. 9:37so I bought the machine well over a year
201. 9:41ago and I already was kind of like
202. 9:44sitting with these ideas of becoming a
203. 9:47low rider car actually Mario and I had
204. 9:49worked on a piece in 2018.
205. 9:53at that moment I was thinking about
206. 9:55cruising as this kind of like
207. 9:56intersection within my personal
208. 9:58experience of low riding with friends
209. 10:00and and family in the 90s in low rider
210. 10:03cars uh but then also like as a gay man
211. 10:07cruising in public spaces and having
212. 10:10sexual encounters with other men and so
213. 10:13I asked Mario to
214. 10:16help me transform my body into a low
215. 10:20rider car
216. 10:21and the idea was to have me as a
217. 10:26lowrider car at these different sites
218. 10:28that would speak to the intersection of
219. 10:31both of these types of cruising
220. 10:35this has been building off of that
221. 10:37performance but taking it to the next
222. 10:40level and starting to include Armature
223. 10:44body armor taking into account fashion
224. 10:47and taking into account the queer
225. 10:49disposition toward how we
226. 10:52present ourselves to the world
227. 10:57I feel like the shape itself inspired me
228. 11:00to think of how someone could ride this
229. 11:01car
230. 11:02and so this this Armature this kind of
231. 11:05like low rider cyborg that I built is in
232. 11:08many ways this vehicle that's helping me
233. 11:12kind of like imagine
234. 11:14what this
235. 11:15inner species encounter could look like
236. 11:18if I were to become a car
237. 11:21yeah
238. 11:22[Music]
239. 11:25my approach to like making this machine
240. 11:29is to not kind of like fall into the
241. 11:33trappings of
242. 11:34of currently how we think about
243. 11:37technology where
244. 11:40humans are becoming more and more
245. 11:42Reliant but instead trying to access
246. 11:44some agency in this relationship and see
247. 11:48what kind of function these hybrid
248. 11:49moments could could generate
249. 11:51[Music]
250. 11:58[Music]
251. 12:12thank you
252. 12:14she turned to me
253. 12:18could you believe
254. 12:27um this is a photograph of
255. 12:31larafa Lupe and myself
256. 12:35having a little meeting over our show
257. 12:39it feels like a like a really beautiful
258. 12:42intersection like this moment where like
259. 12:46our works have been kind of like
260. 12:48I guess when you're seeing each other
261. 12:51um
262. 12:52with within a very like specific
263. 12:55proximity yeah yeah
264. 12:56um
265. 12:57you know that that has like very like
266. 13:00diverse kind of like backgrounds
267. 13:03um but then because of those overlaps I
268. 13:05feel like this this moment where we get
269. 13:07to like work together it feels also so
270. 13:09like organic and I think it was such a
271. 13:12good move on for us to like not treat
272. 13:15every room like this is Rafa's room this
273. 13:17is Mario's like it's like let's just
274. 13:19bring all the work together and see what
275. 13:22happens at the same time like they all
276. 13:23complement each other they seem kind of
277. 13:25natural too yeah even like from the
278. 13:27beginning we were like you know that
279. 13:29just like an instant kind of feeling
280. 13:30yeah I'm just like okay that's
281. 13:32that's the way it's supposed to be yeah
282. 13:35[Music]
283. 13:46[Music]
284. 13:50thank you
285. 13:54[Music]
286. 14:04foreign
287. 14:06[Music]