by Juan Díes, curator of Latino Ohio
This year, working closely with the
Welcome Dayton: Immigrant Friendly City initiative, the Cityfolk Festival's material culture area will focus on local Latino culture. Cityfolk's Director
of Programs Dave Barber, with the help of Juan Díes, a folklorist and
co-founder of the group Sones de Mexico Ensemble (also performing at the
Festival), is curating
the exhibition that
features mostly Latino artists from Ohio and the Midwest who proudly
preserve and share their heritage.
Based on research conducted
by Díes for the Ohio Arts Council in 2009, the exhibition will
feature interactive displays of mural art, traditional costume and hair
styles, ceramic and stone work, foodways, masks, cut paper, yarn
sculptures, sawdust carpets, and Day of the Dead traditions. Visitors
will be able to observe Latino artists with roots in Mexico, Puerto
Rico, Guatemala, and Panama as they work on their craft. Those who wish
to get a little closer to the art will also be able to participate in
several hands-on activities and hear the artists share their thoughts on
the narrative stage.
Two artists featured in this year’s exhibition are
Héctor Castellanos and
Gabriela Pickett.
Héctor Castellanos creates
sawdust carpets, a tradition practiced in his native Guatemala during
Holy Week. His father was a commercial painter and his mother a
dressmaker. While Hector received academic training as a fine arts
painter, he also has a deep connection this folk tradition from
his homeland. Intricate carpet designs are drawn on the pavement using
sawdust that has been dyed in different colors. When finished,
a procession walks on it, intentionally destroying the design to
remind everyone about the fleeting quality of earthly life. Castellanos
maintains this tradition alive in his new home in Cleveland and is often
commissioned by community groups to create sawdust carpets in schools
and churches.
Gabriela Pickett will paint a mural at this year’s
Cityfolk Festival. She is a Dayton-based painter and sculptor who was
born and educated in Mexico City where mural art has a history that
dates back to pre-Columbian days. Gabriela comes from a long line of
talented artists, including her father, her younger brother, who is also
a painter, and her sister, who is a glass artist. Her husband,
Will—says Gabriela—has encouraged her and has been an important factor
in her decision to pursue her art in the U.S. Murals are often public
statements with a social commentary aimed the community. In
Dayton, Gabriela is an activist for social justice. She serves
as Executive Director of the Unitarian Fellowship of World Peace and as
curator of the Missing Peace Art Space. She studied art at Wright State
University in the U.S. but draws inspiration from her Mexican heritage, a
mixture of pre-Hispanic metaphors blended with graphic, and sometimes
even terrifying, images of both great beauty and great suffering. One of
the frequent themes of her work is skeletons and skulls related to the
Mexican Day of the Dead tradition.
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