Perry Vasquez: 'Movidas Razquaches and Other Cheap Thrills'

Join us at Southwestern College Art Gallery for the opening of Movidas Razquaches and Other Cheap Thrills, a collection of new work by artist Perry Vásquez. The exhibition is open from February 4 - March 4, 2025. Regular Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10:30 AM -2:30 PM or by appointment.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“As an artist I try to pay attention to things being created and consumed within my milieu along the San Diego/Tijuana boundary. I find inspiration by reframing and recontextualizing overlooked things I find here and there and on the margins. I chose Movidas Razquaches as the title for my show because I think it captures the spirit and methodology of what I want to accomplish as an artist.”  – Perry Vásquez.

ABOUT THE LANGUAGE

According to Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, rasquachismo is a sensibility that gets expressed in Chicano cultural forms and practices. Ybarra-Frausto writes, “It is a sensibility that is not elevated and serious, but playful and elemental. It finds delight and refinement in what many consider banal and projects an alternative aesthetic, a sort of good taste of bad taste.” Like African-American funk, or the improvised inventions of Rube Goldberg, the emphasis is on wit, resourcefulness and working with what is at hand. The add-on word, movida, can be translated as a maneuver, or a play (as in a game). Poet Juan Felipe Herrera interprets movidas rasquaches as “cheap thrills”, linking it to a pleasurable activity open to anyone who cares to partake. While legal scholar Alfredo Mirandé offers the word “hustle,” suggesting an illicit or unethical way to make a living. Sociologist David Spener uses movidas rasquaches to describe the network of the ad hoc work-arounds and tricks employed by migrants to navigate the US/Mexico border. While no single one of these terms perfectly captures the full meaning, taken together they give a reliable framework for interpretation.

ABOUT THE WORK

Over the last year and a half, Vásquez has created new work that divides into four projects using different media and including collaborative and solo work. Some of the projects are well established while others are being presented to the public for the first time in this exhibition.

Blankets

Vásquez collects flyers advertising gardening services left on his driveway by workers seeking employment. The no-thrills graphic style and the not-so-subtle way in which they seem to copy each other caught the artist’s eye. The act of weaving the flyers into blanket designs celebrates the DIY approach while reminding us of the workers’ aspirations to provide warmth and shelter for their families.

Le Voyage/El Viaje

This is an AI imaging project whose goal was to rethink and replace the transactional language used to prompt and generate AI images. “The AI image making process is hyper-focused on the outcome as the only part of the process with artistic merit. The prompt itself is written to be transactional and limiting.” Vásquez turned the process of generating imagery into a Surrealist game by inserting lines from French poet Charles Baudellaire’s poem Le Voyage into the software. The resulting images were used as the basis for a series of oil paintings.

Monopalms

The presence of cell towers disguised as palm trees (monopalms) has become a common sight in Southern California. This series of paintings implies the link between palm trees and the myth of paradise. The paintings also offer commentary on the telecommunications industry and how it alters our perception of nature and our sense of public and private space.

Mexus Nexus Fluxus

Inspired by Mexican recording artist Esquivel and the German techno artist Señor Coconut, Vásquez arranged four traditional Mexican songs for the synthesizer. He then worked with visual artists Lianne Mueller-Thompson and Carlos Solorio to create video and animations for the music. The music will be presented as a video installation.

RECEPTIONS

Saturday February 8, 11 AM -1 PM.

(free parking in Lot O for this event)

Tuesday, February 11, 11 AM -1 PM.