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| Pointed in its humor and criticism, Rubén Ortiz Torres’s art deals with issues revolving around processes of transculturation. While his focus is the borderland between Mexico and the United States, he works in diverse media including video, sculpture, painting, photography, altered ready-mades, puppets, and writing. His works address stereotypes of Mexicans promoted by the media and raise issues regarding elitist notions of “high” and “low” culture. By presenting Bart Simpson as Bart Sanchez, for example, disguised as a Mexican revolutionary, Ortiz Torres is combining these cultural symbols to demonstrate a contemporary culture permeated by influences from both the past and the present, as well as by both sides of the border.
Ortiz Torres relies on puns that may be evident or cryptic; the viewer must navigate two languages, English and Spanish, as well as vernacular variations from border regions and from different social classes. His series of altered baseball caps evoke urban youth’s fascination with sports attire as they weave in events of cross-cultural political and historical significance. For example, L.A. Rodney Kings combines the logo of the city’s hockey team with a reference to the racially-charged police brutality that sparked riots in Los Angeles in 1992, while his Malcolm Mex Cap relies on linguistic play. 1492 Indians vs. Dukes casts the historic destruction of indigenous people by the hands of European conquistadors in terms of college sports mascots.  (For Grades 4-6) Rubén Ortiz Torres combines history and culture in his art. Read the titles to these three pieces and then take a closer look at the hats. What historical and cultural events do you think he is talking about? What is he trying to say? Why do you think Torres chose to use baseball caps in his art rather than painting on canvas or making a sculpture? Do you think the artist was trying to be funny or serious in these pieces? Why? What do these three hats have in common? |
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Rubén Ortiz Torres Mexico, born 1964 L.A. Rodney Kings (2nd version) Stitched lettering and design on baseball cap, 1993 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Scott Youmans by exchange 2001.8 © Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego |
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