The Incredible Papier-Mâché Biology by Roberto Benavidez Mingle in “Bosch Beasts” – Huge
Piñata’s origins are often associated with Mexico and may actually be traced back to China. By the 14th century, the celebration tradition of opening a container filled with snacks had reached Europe. Spanish colonists and missionaries then imported customs to Mexico in the 16th century, although similar practices had been adopted in the Mayan indigenous and Aztec communities to observe special events. Today, Piñatas has become an integral part of the Papier-Mâché handicraft Cartonería.
For Los Angeles-based artist Roberto Benavidez, Piñata’s art is the central tenet of exercises to explore the intersecting themes of race, sex, humor, sin and beauty. He drew on the early religious significance of the paper art form in Mexico, when Spanish missionaries used the seven-point version as a tool to transform indigenous peoples into Christianity. This pattern appears in some unique sculptures by Benavidez, using a nod to the colonial past.
“The point of the star represents seven deadly sins, waving the mask of the reveller blinds faith, and the snack found inside is a reward for blind and unwavering belief,” Diva Zumaya said in the exhibition at the artist’s current solo exhibition. Bosch Beastin perrotin.
Benavidez continues to make sculptures like Piñata, similar to incredible sculptures, mixed animals, often inspired by the margins of illuminated manuscripts, and the surreal character in Hieronymonus Bosch’s “Pleasant Garden of Earth,” which Dutch artists painted between 1490 and 1490 and 1510.
Bosch Beast Highlights Benavidez’s continued fascination with the rare and extraordinary, new works that have been shown alongside his works he has produced over the past decade. His creatures are mounted on the floor or suspended from the ceiling, appearing to occupy independently and immerse themselves in esoteric group activities.
Each piece is implemented through Papier-mâché, using balloons to create a central form, and then adding the structure of Bristol boards and other glue layers. The wires support more delicate limbs and appendages, and to achieve the final texture, Benavidez cuts and attaches every tiny feather or scale.
“Winning from his personal experience as a queer and mixed-race Mexican
In the United States, Benavidez started with a foundation of mixed sex, and these monsters are the perfect actors. “Zumaya continued:
Every person in the mixed race is very familiar with one question: “What are you?” Too familiar with the feeling of living on the boundaries of identity, and the appearance complicating classification. The way Benavidez uses these hybrids to surround the idea of race echoes their meaning in 16th-century Europe, in which weird concepts are deeply intertwined with the early formation of early races.
Bosch Beast It lasts until October 18 in Los Angeles. See more information on the artist’s website and on Instagram.
