My America Is Not Your America
by Hector O. Hernandez
Curated by Aneesa Shami Zizzo
May 1 – August 1, 2021
View in person by appointment only.
Inquire about purchasing artwork by emailing info@thestudio203.org.
We’re pleased to present new works by Los Angeles-based artist Hector O. Hernandez in My America Is Not Your America. This exhibition is a visual timeline that shares Hernandez’s renderings of current events. Through printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and a community-based art project, My America is one artist’s response to the deeply distressing events currently affecting our community. By attempting to capture the ongoing pandemic and social unrest through Hernandez’s experience, My America is at once a cathartic release for our collective suffering and a call to action for continual self-reflection.
Exhibition Views of My America
All photos by Cecily Brown
Hernandez’s Exhibition Statement
The idea for this show at the beginning of 2020 was to make and showcase new work. Not sure about what exactly but I saw it as a goal to focus and get back into taking my art practice seriously - and not like a hobby which I realized I had ended up doing for the past 8 years or so. Plus, I had more free time to actually focus on making art after the end of a long-term relationship.
As the year went on and the world became restless because of Covid-19, police brutality, and the social unrest because of these issues and more, my work became more political and felt the need to respond to the issues of the day. It felt liberating to work without editing and overthinking the ideas, and leaving the work itself looking and feeling raw. A lot of it was critical of the Trump administration, and the GOP-led Senate. But, after the initial response, I realized that anger and frustration wouldn’t amount to much if used to ridicule and spew hatred.
So began the process of finding ways to use printmaking, drawing, and paper-making as a means to shift the conversation and focus to building community and having conversations around the importance of craft/making as a way to work through issues, personal and other. It felt fitting to focus on these media for these projects since they all require a physicality to their process, just like any other craft media, and more importantly they can be easy to continue to do at home. Plus, printmaking itself has a long history of being used to make political and social commentary and helped in mass-producing books and distributing information to the masses.
Individual pieces and series in My America
Protest Drawings
The first works on paper Hernandez completed in June 2020 are raw depictions of the recent protests against police brutality. Loose pencil marks, brushstrokes and sketched outlines convey his urgent need to capture the essence of social unrest during that time. Each “Protest Drawing” acts as a snapshot of daily events: triumphant BLM protestors silhouetted in a fiery inferno, re-written sardonic mantras for the LAPD, and a powerful image of a shielded face in riot gear.
Monuments
A second series emerged as Hernandez refined his political motifs. Focusing on the process of artmaking, Hernandez began to use printmaking and drawing as a way to better understand his frustration. This tactile method of making-while-meditating led to detail-oriented and symbolic imagery that Hernandez reimagined into alternative U.S. historical monuments.
Paper Seed Bomb Project
Wanting to share a making-while-meditating methodology with his community, Hernandez developed the Paper Seed Bomb Project to activate positive change through dialogue and introspection. Inspired by religious votive offerings, the seed bomb molds reference American coins (with a Spanglish version of “E Pluribus Unum”) that are buried, watered, and taken care of by volunteers. Participants are encouraged to create and care for the seed bombs, united in a common goal to care for one’s mental health in the midst of a pandemic.
I wanted the form of the seed bombs to reference American coins (with a Spanglish version of “E Pluribus Unum”) that would be buried, watered, and taken care of by the volunteers. The intention and action of the seed bombs reminded me of religious votive offerings - offerings in anticipation for a particular wish (or sometimes an offering made to a god or saint after a wish is fulfilled). The purpose of this project was a way to build connections with people and communities that would also serve as a way to protest or put our energy for positive change through a mixture of dialogue and introspection - with the introspection part coming as we take time to make the seed bombs and take care of the seeds as they slowly grow and bloom.
– Hector O. Hernandez
Hernandez’s Studio Setup
The artist’s own drafting table is included in this arrangement, featuring preliminary sketches, proof-of-concept drawings, a sketchbook, and a book proof with commemorative illustrations of POC murdered by police.
About the My America Merch
January 16, 2021
By Hector O. Hernandez
I think there was a consensus view that 2021 was going to be better than 2020, especially after Biden won the presidential election and the Covid-19 vaccine began being distributed. But that only lasted 5 whole days!
After the riot/insurrection that happened on January 6, 2021 in the Capitol, the majority of the American people were angry and frustrated, myself included, since it clearly showed unequivocally the double standards of the justice system and the hypocrisy of many Republicans in Congress. And this echoed throughout the media and online, from average citizens to even Joe Biden calling out the black & white difference of how the police treat protests - if you are Black, antifa, or are supporting BLM then you are rioting and need to be arrested/dispersed by force, and if you are white and are rioting, terrorizing, and threatening our Democracy, you are protesting and need to be escorted out of the building. It’s a whole lot of bullshit that was laid bare for everyone to see.
As Aneesa Shami Zizzo and I discussed the work for this show, we spoke about the continued relevance of the work (unfortunately). I ended up testing positive for Covid-19 on January 9, 2021, which meant I had to quarantine and figure out what to do. So I began making more work, thinking about printmaking and its role with commodification, power structures, and how I can voice my opinion as an American Citizen.
Seeing the drastic difference in policing between BLM and the white supremacy rioting, got me thinking about America’s long history of white supremacy ideals being deeply ingrained in societal structures. Mainly focusing on policing and the justice system, generational wealth, economic mobility and disparity, and who in our current political climate truly supports our democracy.
Piece number 1 was a digital political cartoon made as a response to the Democratic candidates winning their runoff elections in Georgia AND the riot/insurrection that happened in the Capitol (both on the same day!). Looking at it one week later, it felt dated only due to the fact that Twitter and Facebook banned Trump from their platforms, and Parler was shut down - who knows what Trump has been up to on his phone since then, or if he even uses it anymore.
The second piece, Get Out of Jail/Go To Jail, came about out of play and practice. I originally was viewing this piece as a good opportunity to improve my graphic design skills as I made light of what occurred at the Capitol, and as a response to the blatant hypocrisy of the police. Once the two images were done, I wanted to make them tangible objects and decided to make them into cards. They’re double-sided cards because as our current events have shown, the justice system itself has two sides depending on the situations and seems to always favor one over the other - such as whites & BIPOC, rich & poor, corporations & individuals, the police & victim/suspect.
The third is a sticker of the American flag with the phrase “Staying Neutral Is Not An Option,” and the date “January 6, 2021” in the original version of the piece. It works in two ways, as a reminder of what occurred that day, and two, as a call to arms to be ready to call out injustice and defend our Democracy. There are two versions of it, one with the flag rightside up, and the other is with the flag upside down, which is used to refer to a time of dire distress to life or property. It initially came about as I listened to the podcast The Messenger, which is about the Uganda presidential elections and felt like an alternate version of how our own elections could have escalated. And much like the Get Out of Jail/Go To Jail piece, there is a duality in how people view our current situation. Although it’s safe to say that the majority of the people in the US and around the world are viewing our current state as being in distress.
I think I’m viewing these as trinkets and commodified artworks that are “cashing in” on our current state of affairs. It’s meant to work in multiple ways. One, the majority of art objects are commodities that are sold, collected, and used to make a profit to live off of the art (well, that’s what we as artists are striving to do, make a living off our work). Two, who is allowed to profit off of such events, and can it be done in ethical ways? Three, printmaking is tightly connected to mass production and can these digital and commercially printed works be viewed as fine art or will they be viewed as simply merch?
About Hector O. Hernandez
Hector O. Hernandez was born and raised in South LA by two Mexican-born parents. He grew up gravitating towards art from an early age, admiring and copying his older brother, and being interested in all kinds of visual imagery – especially video games, comics, and animation. Hernandez holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009 and a MFA in Drawing & Printmaking from Washington State University, Pullman in 2011. He has organized and taught introductory printmaking workshops under Aguacate Press at the Hawthorne Arts Complex since 2016. Hernandez is currently living and making art in Los Angeles, CA.
www.hectoromarhernandez.com/
@hector.o.h
@aguacate.press
About Aneesa Shami Zizzo
Aneesa Shami Zizzo is the co-owner and director of Studio 203, an artist-run space in Los Angeles that collaborates with like-minded individuals to create exhibitions and host workshops and performances. She is an artist and researcher based in Los Angeles using recycled materials to create fiber art. Zizzo holds Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in both Fiber and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute.
www.thestudio203.org
www.aneesashami.com
@thestudio203
@aneesashami