Review

A review of Tony Ortega's Mi Frontera Es Su Frontera

Tony Ortega, "Apparition," mural/installation, mixed media, 240" x 121", 2010. Image: courtesy of the museum and artist

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
Boulder, Colorado
June 11, 2010 — September 5, 2010

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These verses hummed in my mind while I viewed Mi Frontera Es Su Frontera, Tony Ortega’s current exhibition at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

The famous verses make up Emma Lazarus’s 1883 sonnet The New Colossus, which is engraved on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. Lady Liberty is one of several US American and Latin American cultural images Ortega uses in his works to portray themes of religion, politics and social struggles that are part of the Hispanic experience.

Ortega combines the image of Lady Liberty and the Lady of Guadalupe in many of his works. The combination, which he refers to as Lupe Liberty in some of his titles, is quite striking and significant.

Apparition is an installation piece that revolves around the central image of Lupe Liberty. This installation, which includes materials like barbed wire and a water barrel, invites the viewer to step into a scene. A print of Lupe Liberty hangs on a wall with faceless immigrants drawn in charcoal looking up from below. It was clear to me as a viewer that my gaze should go to the elevated Lupe Liberty, as well. The event shown resembles both a religious gathering and a political rally, with Lupe Liberty becoming a figure of hope in multiple respects.

Tony Ortega, "La Marcha de Lupe Liberty," silkscreen, 23.5" x 16.5", 2006. Image: courtesy of the museum and artist

In a silkscreen titled La Marcha de Lupe Liberty, the statue’s role as an iconic leader is even more pronounced. Here, the faceless immigrants have more of a presence because of the bold colors Ortega uses to depict them and because they march towards the viewers, no longer with their backs turned to us. Mimicking the strength in Lady Liberty’s upright arm that holds a torch, the immigrants march out waving American flags.

Yet even in this work where the immigrants’ faces are directly facing us, there’s no strong sense of individuality. And that’s on purpose. According to Ortega’s website, the “collective is the primary focus” in his work.

“Individuals in my artwork are faceless because they are important only to the extent that they help define the group,” he writes on his site.

Not only are people in Ortega’s paintings and silkscreens faceless, but all of the surrounding objects are also simple in form. He uses linear perspective to give his scenes a realistic dimensionality, but this is often juxtaposed with less three-dimensional people, buildings, and surroundings. This juxtaposition is a tool for engagement.

In his series of monotype silkscreens over posters — another juxtaposition — Ortega layers image on top of image. Alien Farm Worker, Alien Seamstress and Illegal Alien are three works that have an image of a seemingly out-of-place extraterrestrial being superimposed over a farm worker, seamstress, and mass of people, respectively. This awkward combination is an ingenious strategy to make us realize the absurdity of referring to a foreigner with the same word we use for a Martian.

Tony Ortega, "Western Union," hand-colored solar etching, 19.5" x 8.5", 2008. Image: courtesy of the museum and artist

Some of Ortega’s other pieces are smaller in scale but resonate just as strongly. As its title suggests, Western Union is compiled of three Western Union forms. The forms read, “Para enviar dinero a Mexico (To send money to Mexico)” at the top; hand-colored solar etchings of a maid, baker, and carpenters are drawn on each form. The forms being sent back to Mexico have a deeper story visibly attached to them. In its small size, Western Union poetically connects the work that immigrants do on a daily basis with the reason that they do it.

And that’s what struck me most about this exhibition: Ortega doesn’t hit you over the head with an idea but gives you enough information and components of a story for you to ponder your own conclusion. By using bold colors and simple human forms, Ortega’s depictions of the Hispanic experience are both approachable and striking. At a time when America’s demographics are changing quickly, the experiences depicted by Ortega try to display the way that circumstances often shape and affect us.

-re-

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