just words vol one : no one 04.01 present future past index email

11/19/94  Los Anthropolocos: Desenterando Güeros Artists Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez prove that "rasquache" means never having to say you're sorry. By Victor Payan Hoy es el futuro. Pasan cien anos, los "Whites" han desaparecido de los estados unidos y de la planeta, a punto de pestilencia o de purga, nadie sabe. La raza cosmica de los Chicanos controla el gobierno del pais, Aztlan Unido, los instituciones de cultura y, mas importante...los organizaciones de fundación. Casi quinientos manos izquierdas palidas han sido descubiertos bajo la tierra de Saddleback College en Mission Viejo. Que la chingada? Podrian contener un clue a la conclusión misteriosa de los enigmaticos "Whites?" Nostalgia y una sed profunda de saber promueven la questión: Que traian esos gringos? Y pues, this looks like a job for los Anthropolocos. Los anthropolocos, the brainchildren of local Chicano conceptual artists Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez, are two Ch.D.s (Doctors of Chicanismo) from the University of Aztlan whose ongoing conceptual "White-fying Project" aims to discover the various details surrounding the strange Maya-like disappearance of those colorless people, los Whites. Their latest exhibit, "Los Anthropolocos New Digs at Mission Viejo: In Search of the Colorless Hands," is on diplay at the Saddleback College art gallery until Dec. 15. The exhibit is composed of several elements, drawn together under the premise of an anthropological dig. The pair uses whimsy and folly to set up elaborate hypotheses explaining their "study" of the Euro-American disappearance. Inversion + subversion = their version. The first element consists of four hundred sixty-three identical pudgy, white latex hands, individually numbered and uniformly displayed along two walls of the dimly lit gallery. The effect is both stunning and invitingly tactile. They play against the romanticized aspects of museum displays while mocking the greed of the archeology industry. They make it clear from the beginning that for five dollars you can purchase a hand of your choosing, autographed by the artists. "To raise funds for our research," explains Lou. On the other two walls hang the various theories the anthropolocos have developed regarding the origins of the hands as well as the dig tools and explanations of their usage. The theories are whimsical restatements of various socio-racist conclusions about minorities that, placed on the other foot as it were, become evident for what they really are. Contemporary aspects of White cultural diaspora such as New Age mysticism and the popularity of neo-tribal body-piercing are tickled and teased. The archeological tools conform to a cheesy-chafisima aesthetic which reinforces the notion that rasquache means never having to say you're sorry. They are silly yet intricately Rube Goldberg-esque constructions. The names of the tools are hybridized Az-technifications, among them the Paliluz-Huitzilpochtli ("a manifestation of the Sun God") used to test soil samples and the Planchita Tepanteohuatzin (priests in charge of education), which is used to gauge the amount of trace elements such as tofu or Hostess Ding Dongs in the hand, in order to place it within an economic hierarchy. Y si se parecen chafitas, no importa. It's all subtext. The second element is a video projected from the ceiling into a sandbox situated in the center of the gallery floor. The video loops include clips from films such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and footage of the Anthropoloco excavation. In one segment from the dig, Sanchez surveys the ground with his Paliluz Huitzilpochtli (which appears to be a broomstick fitted with a teaspoon and a flashlight bulb). Spoon by spoon he carefully sifts through the sand until a colorless hand is detected. Upon his signal, Lou rushes in with a heavy shovel, stabbing wildly at the ground and lifting out the hand like a trout from a lake. The video accelerates to a comical pace as Sanchez and Lou engage in a frenzied act of piscando manos. The night of the opening, Nov. 1, several children in attendance gathered playfully around the primal sandbox, sifting through the earth with their tiny fingers, unintentionally underscoring the irony that the show opened on Dia de Los Santos, when the souls of deceased children supposedly walk the earth. The third element is a a series of three outdoor excavation sites where the tantos cienes manos fueron descubierto. In one, a white jumpsuit emblazoned with the name Farnsworth is splayed spread-eagle on the ground. In the second, a grotesque bouquet of latex hands bulges from a hole. In the third, a hand mysteriously pokes out of a briefcase. Later opening night, Lou and Sanchez lead a tour of onlookers to the dig sites. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and we'll feel free to be sarcastic as possible," invites Lou. Why hands and not feet? Dares one woman. "We're not sure. That's why we only have theories," explains Lou, as if he gets that particular question a lot. "If we were more sure, then they would be postulates. And if they were postulates, then this would be geometry. And if this was geometry, then it wouldn't be art. Or maybe it would be art, but maybe it would lack chemistry. I hope that answers your question." Several people laugh. A photographer asks to take a family picture of Lou, Sanchez and their daughters, posed next to the remains of the unceremoniously unearthed Farnsworth, and they oblige, striking exaggerated poses like the cultural plunderers of yore. In their previous manifestation, a performance called "Los Anthropolocos vs. the White Mummies," which was held at the now-defunct Cafe Cinema, Sanchez and Lou devised an elaborate performance-installation in which they, complete with helmet-cam, giant screen projection and Barry Manilow-charged soundtrack, performed an autopsy on the remains of a mummy supposedly unearthed behind "David Duke's Transmission Shop" in El Cajon. The piece concluded with the anthropolocos and the dissected mummies dancing cachete a cachete to the Texas Tornados' "Oh Holy One," an espectáculo de luchas in which Definer and Defined or Defiler and Defiled reach an intimate understanding. A key factor in the anthropolocos' work has been a gleeful twiddling with the macabre, a kind of bizarre-cheology in which they dance combat-boot clad over sacred ground, especially if this sacred ground happens to be in our own cultural backyard. The metaphor of backyard anthropology can be interpreted on a number of levels. It can be a criticism of the fact that this nation was built on the bones of the colored classes, and so anywhere you drop a shovel, especially on the grounds of an educational institution, you're going to hit somebody's grandfather. Or, more importantly it can signify a notion of self-empowerment that invites us all to become anthropolocos if only we subscribe to the chingón correspondence course from UNAztlaN...thus, we can all tear through the cultural soil in search of Cibola. The driving component to the anthropolocos concept is humor, in a Groucho-Marxista dialectic in which humor is a form of anger, a last stand of affirmation against a powerlessness to act. Humor is power. If you disrupt and define my past, I'll disrupt and define your future. I will bury you by digging up your remains. Reir es poder. "Los Anthropolocos New Digs at Mission Viejo: In Search of the Colorless Hands" runs until Dec. 15 at the Saddleback College art gallery. Gallery hours are Monday, Noon-5pm and 6-8pm and Tuesday-Thursday Noon-5pm. For more information, call 582-4924.   The Six Theories Theory 1: Prosthetics Aesthetitics Entering the Realm of Popular Culture: "One handedness, or 'Asymmetry' as it was called by popular culture psychologists of the era, was considered desirable and even attractive." Theory 2: Racial Paradox as Sexual Trigger - "A Chicano collector of the weird and bizarre named Freddy "El Prieto Dahmer" Jimenez, covertly stole hands from many of the Colorless mummies in the collections of various major Chicano anthropology museums." Theory 3: Self-Mutilation as Social/Political Expression: "In the early stages of United Aztlan's nationhood, a small band of the Colorless cut off their left hands in a protest of their loss of power." Theory 4: Criminal Intent Becomes a Social Identifier: "A large number of Colorless created a grisly welfare scam...It is widely documented that their culture did not value work nor did it encourage ambition or initiative." Theory 5: Religious Zealotry As Postal Practice: "Citing new nativist legislation by the Third Plebium Parliament of United Aztlan...(cult leader Richard "El Palido" Rodriguez) had brainwashed his congregation to cut off their left hands as a sign of protest and an act of faith." Theory 6: Global Economy as Evolutionary Catalyst - "After working full twelve-hour shifts in the 'tomatoe' fields of San Clemente...hands swelled for two weeks non-stop until they simply dropped off."   (The Six Theories taken from the Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez exhibit "Los Anthropolocos New Digs at Mission Viejo: In Search of the Colorless Hands") © 1994 Victor Payan back to top