The Mexican Problem  

The Mexican Problem.... would that be the dilemma affected by 150,000 undocumented, immigrants who cross the border every year? The crisis faced by an increasing number of public schools flooded with Spanish speaking-only students? All that testosterone? Or would it be the cruelty of being denied medical attention due to a lack of proper paperwork? Or working 80 hours a-week just to barely get by? Or watching people eat flour tortillas, rather than corn? Brothers Jamex and Einar de la Torre, who divide their time equally between their ranch studio outside of Ensenada and a studio based in downtown San Diego, examine and toy with the complexities, contradictions and confluence faced by disposed and hybrid cultures. The brothers' current installation at Intersection for the Arts is a garish, goading display of global gluttony. Here they have mixed mythology, Catholic iconography, pop culture imagery, and political commentary with their highly crafted blown glass, material from the street like beer cans and cigarettes, and fake fur to create a dazzling spectacle for the spaces "between." At the center of the gallery sits a pyramid built from clean white tile that has been soiled and sullied. Atop stands the gun toting "El Fly Boy," a two-foot figure of blown glass that looks to be Maurice Sendak's version of Pokemon. Fly Boy holds the leashes to the three little glass pigs of profit that have descended, leaving a trail of shit flecked with U.S. bills and coins. Nearby a ten-foot satellite dish sits adorned with Coyolxauhqui, the Moon goddess of Aztec mythology, in fake fur and encircled by TVs made of glass that feature the stereotypical images of Americana influence on their screens: guns, cigarettes, big boobs, blonds, alcohol. The exhibit creates a fresh voice that does not specifically belong to either culture, but rather generates a new formal amalgamation of the two.

Intersection for the Arts 
446 Valencia (between 15/16th Streets), San Francisco 
Wed. - Sat. 12p.m. - 5p.m. (Tues by appointment) 
(415) 626-2787 (Megan Wilson)