AMBASSASDOR JOURNAL: CRISTÓBAL GRACIA: WEEK 5

1. Fragment 2, reversal of fortune.

If, at any point during or immediately after the eating contest, a competitor regurgitates any food, he or she will be disqualified. Vomiting, also known as a "reversal", or, as ESPN and the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest call it, a "reversal of fortune", includes obvious signs of vomiting as well as any small amounts of food that may fall from the mouth deemed by judges to have come from the stomach. Small amounts of food already in the mouth prior to swallowing are excluded from this rule.

2. I went to Casa Bonita for the second time,

Thank you for reading.

AMBASSASDOR JOURNAL: CRISTÓBAL GRACIA: WEEK 4

1. I met John H. Schneider the weekend of Saint Patrick’s Day, he sat next to me in the bus. A 65 year-old man with sunglasses and a ponytail carrying a black backpack, he was complaining that he couldn't drink or smoke weed, he had 2 months left on probation, he spent 4 years in jail for smuggling drugs. He was just wasting time on the bus, he had nowhere to be or nothing to do, so spending time in the bus talking to strangers was his way of entertainment. He started smuggling drugs when he was about 17, he said it was super easy around that time to cross borders with a truck or a little plane filled with weed and cocaine, most of the stuff he had came from Jamaica or Alaska, “who the fuck would suspect from a plane coming from Alaska, no one”. His best time was in the 80s carrying a bunch of cocaine in his pockets at night in the clubs and sharing it with all the girls. Then he got caught, he spent 4 years in jail, and now he is on probation. Instead of playing cards or lifting weights like most inmates he spent most of his time drawing, he had always liked art but while in jail he really had the time to fully dedicate to it. He showed me some prints of his drawings, landscapes with hidden figures, faces, animals and a lot of skulls. I decided to buy one of his prints for $7 dollars, I still don't know if I like the print or if it was  just the history behind it that really interested me. John kind of reminded me of a B movie version of Johnny Depp in the movie Blow and his drawing made me think of a piece from Mike Kelley's “Pay for you pleasure,” where he shows a painting made by John Wayne Gacy.

2. Fragments of the Articulated Wall that are made by the shadow game that the sun creates (from both sculptures, Mexico city and Denver).

3-4. I really like how from the distance the sculpture looks in perfect shape but when you get close you can really appreciate a kind of state of decay, so the paint not only functions as color but also as a physical material too, pealing apart or kind of with stains and layers of paint.

5-7. In Ciudad Juarez in Mexico due to the lack of budget, several statues and sculptures were cleaned with Valentina sauce. It is not just the weirdness of this story and the aspect that the Valentina sauce works for cleaning sculptures, but what really caught my attention was the photos of the Valetina sauce dripping from the sculptures. It looked like they were bleeding and besides, Ciudad Juarez is one of the most violent places in Mexico. So this idea of a monument or a sculpture bleeding really came into my work and the valentina sauce too.

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: MATT SCOBEY: WEEK 10

Another beautiful and busy week in DF. Had a great studio visit with Carla Herrera-Prats. Carla is director of the SOMA summer program and has been very helpful in informing my research and setting me up with studio visits and portfolio reviews. Saw a really fun performance at SOMA by Sacha Yanow. Got to check out the first round of molds created from my prototype tiles. Panik Studio introduced me to Ricardo Atl who produced the molds. The detail in reproduction is really impressive. I can barely tell the difference between the original and the reproductions. I have an open studio next Friday, then I pack everything up and return to Denver.


AMBASSASDOR JOURNAL: CRISTÓBAL GRACIA: WEEK 3

1. Casa Bonita; The worlds most exciting restaurant / The Disneyland of Mexican eateries!!Founder Bill Waugh opened the first Casa Bonita restaurant in Oklahoma, in 1968. By the mid-1970s, the chain had expanded to locations in adjacent states; the …

1. Casa Bonita; The worlds most exciting restaurant / The Disneyland of Mexican eateries!!

Founder Bill Waugh opened the first Casa Bonita restaurant in Oklahoma, in 1968. By the mid-1970s, the chain had expanded to locations in adjacent states; the Denver restaurant (1974) is the last stand of the Casa Bonita Empire

On the top of Casa Bonita’s facade there is a copy of the sculpture of Cuitlahuac, the original one is situated in Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City.

2. The fountain outside Casa Bonita was shipped from Mexico in pieces.

2. The fountain outside Casa Bonita was shipped from Mexico in pieces.

3. The waterfall cliffs of Casa Bonita are inspired by “la Quebrada” from Acapulco, Mexico.

3. The waterfall cliffs of Casa Bonita are inspired by “la Quebrada” from Acapulco, Mexico.

4. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Goya

4. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Goya

5. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Goya

5. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, Goya


6. Kesang Lamdark, Dorge Drakkten and Kiss, 2012. Melted plastic, acrylic and metallic foil. CU Art Museum

6. Kesang Lamdark, Dorge Drakkten and Kiss, 2012. Melted plastic, acrylic and metallic foil. CU Art Museum

7. Kesang Lamdark, Dorge Drakkten and Kiss, 2012. Melted plastic, acrylic and metallic foil. CU Art Museum

7. Kesang Lamdark, Dorge Drakkten and Kiss, 2012. Melted plastic, acrylic and metallic foil. CU Art Museum

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: MATT SCOBEY: WEEK 9

Checked out gallery Talcual to see work of fellow ambassador Daniel Monroy Cuevas. Caught up with Lauren Wright, Curator and Art Director of Biennial of the Americas for a beer, a rush hour metro ride and studio visit. Spent a lot of time in the studio finalizing a prototype tile design which will be made into a mold this coming week with at Panik Studio. Working with ideas of chaos, order, process, repetition, permanence, and pattern.

This images above are digital mock-ups of how an object can be mirrored and repeated to create a sense of order/pattern from a seemingly chaotic single form.

 

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: CRISTÓBAL GRACIA: WEEK 2

  

Herbert Bayer, Articulated Wall, 1968, Mexico City, Ruta de la Amistad, Olympic games.

Herbert Bayer, Articulated Wall, 1985, Denver, Colorado, Denver Design District.

1968 design plans for Mexico D.F Articulated Wall. / “Skin” of Denver´s Articulated Wall 1985

State like church; providing eternity to their “heroes”

Bikini Wax is an artist run space; it was born in 2011 in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico. In 2013 Bikini Wax moves to Mexico City, Daniel Aguilar, Cristobal Gracia, Ramon Izaguirre and Rodrigo Garcia are the directors and the team in charge of this magnificent independent space. Since 2013 Bikini Wax has held almost 40 exhibitions, one of the main characteristics of Bikini Wax is its residential condition, since people live in the house, bringing certain limitations and characteristics very interesting for the artists to deal with.

 

Since 2014 Bikini Wax started to diversify the program of activities, this means that it stopped being just a place for exhibitions to become a platform for production, exhibition and discussion of contemporary artistic practices. Activities such as TEP (Taller de Exposiciones Potenciales, Potential Exhibition Workshop), public talks and round tables are a clear example of this.

Ambassador Journal: Matt Scobey: Week 7

Diving into production. Had really great meetings with fabricators Demiurge in Denver and Panik in Mexico City. Both left me inspired and were informative in helping me think about how to design and build forms and molds that will be required to realize the work. In the next week I will be deciding on size, shape, and patterning that will be incorporated into the final piece. Pouring more tests in the studio and getting  prototypes ready that I can use to create the forms. 

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: CRISTÓBAL GRACIA: WEEK 1

I have a mad impulse to smash something….. to commit outrages.
Herman Hesse.

They (artists) are more often the auxiliaries of corruption than of regeneration.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.

                                                 Imagination lies in wait as the most powerful enemy. Naturally raw, and enamored of absurdity,                                                it breaks out against all civilizing restraints like a savage who takes delight in grimacing idols.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

I call monster all original inexhaustible beauty.
Alfred Jarry.

PAY FOR YOUR PLEASURE QUOTES.
MIKE KELLEY.

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: MATT SCOBEY: WEEK 5

Had a really good meet up with Jota Izquierdo which is sending my research and process in a bit of a different direction. I also met up with Whitney Eulich who is working on a piece about the Ambassador program for Colorado Public Radio. My family and a few friends from Denver were in town. Tomorrow I have a studio visit with Ray Rinaldi of the Denver Post and am excited to meet artist Raul Ortega Ayala who will be my mentoring artist during the remainder of my residency.

 

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: MATT SCOBEY: WEEK 4

Last week was really productive and it seems like a few themes for my installation/exhibition are starting to take shape. Had a good meeting with Victor Palacios a curator currently associated with the department of visual arts at Casa Del Lago and Lorenzo Rocha of Oficina de Arte, both offered interesting insight on my ideas and process.

I was also able to speak with Carla Herrera Prats, Ricardo Alzati of SOMA and Adam Gildar of Artplant who were very helpful as well. Next week I am scheduled to meet with Jota Izquierdo at his studio because he has worked with some of the same themes that I am noticing and interested in commenting on. I can’t stress how amazing it is to speak with other art professionals who have more experience in the culture which I am visiting.

These conversations have been fairly informal though I am learning alot through the process. Themes that are emerging have to do with labor and formal and informal economies and I am hoping to produce a series of sculptures that reference these concepts much in the way a documentary photography exhibition would.

More soon

Matt

AMBASSADOR JOURNAL: MATT SCOBEY: WEEK 3

Ideas are starting to take shape and I’ve begun the process of getting forms and materials into the studio. Poured a few tests on Friday. Right now I’m feeling inspired by labor, balance, layering, and color.

Getting to know my host and housemates. Enrique Macias my host, a photographer, currently preparing for Zona Maco. His work is well thought out and executed and he is one of the most friendly people I have met since arriving in Mexico City. Sara is an actress from Barcelona in Mexico for a month now after spending time in LA. She is working on creating an acting workshop and in talks with a few local production companies about hosting it. Alsi Cavusoglu just arrived from NY last week. She is an artist from Istanbul who is preparing work for exhibition with New Museum as part of their triennial. 

We all have very different processes but it is inspiring to share time and space with a group of people dedicated to living creative lives. Plan to get into production this coming week and have a studio visit scheduled with a curator from Museo de Arte Moderno, as well as a skype call with curator Carla Herrera Pratts of SOMA. 

Ambassador Journal: Matt Scobey: Week 1

Hola amigos! I arrived in Mexico City yesterday. It is a dense and vibrant scene with an architecture and energy like I have never experienced. I met with my hosts at SOMA and got to hear about its history, current projects and educational programming. We then walked over to a local open air market known for its seafood and had a refreshing lunch. After lunch I was escorted to my apartment in Colonia Roma where I met my roomate and was given a quick tour of the property. Looking forward to getting into my studio Friday and getting started on some production.

Goodvibrations
Matt

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