With piñatas

 

Chuck Ramirez
Pascale Marthine Tayou
Pulp Parlour
Art Pinjata Studio
Diana Benavidez
Iván Argote
Meg Cranston
Thedra Cullar-Ledford
Piñata Jumpolin
Dave McKenzie
Mariana Castillo Deball
Giovanni Valderas
Roberto Benavidez
Justin Favela
Aaron Krach
Franco Mondini-Ruiz
Franz West
Blanka Amezkua
Mathias Goeritz
Paolo Pivi
Gaby Lopez
HangMeOfficial
Sebastian Errazuriz
Charlotte Sagory
Jennifer Rubell

 

______________
Chuck Ramirez Piñata series (2002)
‘Chuck Ramirez came into this world with an eagle’s detail-devouring eye. In his Piñata series (2002), Ramirez puts his eye to complex narrative use: each image zeroes in on the material detritus of a past event and displays the swept-up and forsaken. Ramirez’ photographic technique in the Piñata series and elsewhere employs an almost molecular focus and a light both pitiless and exalting. With an initial blast of color, the comical intent of each party sculpture appears readily. But each torn paper limb and ruffle, each glimpse of spindly wooden skeleton and bulge of newspaper stuffing suggests a deep pathos behind the early impressions of humor. In lesser hands, a photo series of freshly-whacked piñatas could have taken on all the glibness and slick irreverence of a kitsch mexicanismo. It could have come off sentimental. For Ramirez, though, his worldview lies in the particulars; he doesn’t present piñatas with a pop, but with subversive gravitas. His awareness of his own mortality is too finely attuned, his queerness too gritty and his anger too potent to contain itself in mere punchlines. Ramirez also made evident his ambivalence towards Mexican and Mexican-American culture; an identity he claimed firmly and dismissed irreverently in turn, but never fully turned away from. The Piñata series exemplifies Ramirez’ respect for handiwork and, of course, rasquache.’ — Sarah Fisch

 

______________
Pascale Marthine Tayou Empty Gifts (2015)

 

______________
Pulp Parlour Bat Woman (2010)
‘This life size pinata stands at 5 feet 7 inches. Numerous pinata bats were created and attached to her.’ — PP

 

______________
Art Pinjata Studio Various (2018)

Hatsune Miku

Keith Prodigy

Ariana Grande

 

______________
Diana Benavidez Piñatas (2016 – 2019)
‘In this body of work, Diana Benavidez introduces the piñata as a method for storytelling, expression, and reflection. Benavidez shares her personal narratives by manipulating physically and conceptually the piñata through the incorporation materials not commonly found in traditional piñatas. Through the use of color, scale, and text, this popular Mexican art form is transformed into a contemporary art practice that explores mental states and emotions.’ — contemporaryartdaily

 

______________
Iván Argote White Cube Piñata (2014)
‘White Cube Piñata it’s a comment on minimal sculptural and also exhibition standards of installation. Something important is that the object, as happens with piñatas, is made to be broken during a celebration, so here, the White Cube is presented broke, inside of it there is plenty of small sculptures, performances instructions and many other references and winks to art history, popular culture and even sentimental things.’ — Perrotin

 

______________
Meg Cranston Magical Death (2002)
‘For some artists, stuffing their piñata is not as important as the beating it will take, especially when it’s a self-portrait. From 2002-2007, Los Angeles-based artist Meg Cranston created a series of empty piñatas in her own image. Each piece in the series is titled after the anthropological documentary Magical Death (1973) about the Yanomami people of Brazil who use ritual warfare, or “shamanic drama” to avoid real blood shed. According to Artforum, early in the series Cranston invited visitors to “enact a similar ritual murder on her own pendant form—if they would be willing to pay for the pleasure by buying the work.” Cranston later suggested that no one had taken her up on this masochistic challenge and for this reason she filled her last piñata with candy. “The violence has to occur,” she said, “so the figure (my doppelgänger) can symbolically triumph.”’ — Art21

 

________________
Thedra Cullar-Ledford F**K CANCER (2016)
‘The performance is a response to let everyone know how she feels about her breast cancer diagnosis, and her choice to have a double mastectomy and live the mantra “flat and fabulous.”’ — Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

 

________________
A PIÑATA STORE IN AUSTIN GETS BULLDOZED BY LANDLORDS FOR A SXSW PARTY
‘Unreal. A party supply store, Piñata Jumpolin, in the eastside of Austin, was reduced to rubble, unbeknownst to store owners, Monica and Sergio Lejarazu, by building landlords for a party to take place during SXSW. The store was in the location for 8 years. This upsetting news also points to the fact that Austin is the most economically segregated city in the country, according to Austin Culture Map. It was the morning of February 12, as he was driving his daughter to school, that Sergio Lejarazu discovered that the store that he co-owned with his wife for eight years, selling custom, hand-made moonwalks, piñatas imported from Mexico, and more, was demolished, allegedly without warning, with their inventory still inside. Sergio describes to Austin Culture Map: “That’s when I saw it: my life’s work under the bulldozer.”’ — Pennsylvania Herald

 

________________
Robert Benavidez Illuminated Piñatas (2018)
‘Robert Benavidez looks to famous paintings and literature for source material for his metallic piñatas, such as Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (previously). The Los Angeles-based artist’s most recent series Illuminated Piñata pulls characters from the Luttrell Psalter (c. 1325-1335), a famous medieval manuscripts. The book contains illustrations of fantastical hybrid creatures, which Benavidez further explores by creating three-dimensional sculptures using traditional piñata motifs.’ — thisiscolossal

 

________________
Dave McKenzie Self-Portrait Piñata (2002)
‘When Jamaica-born artist Dave McKenzie commissioned an effigy of himself as piñata, his “hanging” and “beating” had entirely different connotations. At an event at the Queens Museum of Art, museum-goers joyously bashed McKenzie’s likeness. Candy and fun seemed trivial, if not inappropriate, as his dangling lifeless figure began to conjure America’s history of lynching and other racially charged violence.’ — Artsy

 

_____________
Mariana Castillo Deball Klein Bottle Piñata (2009)
‘Klein Bottle Piñata is inspired by the typical Mexican piñata, giving it the form of a bottle painted International Klein Blue. Triggering a logical but original relationship, Castillo Deball’s vision thus unites the concept of the container-pot, which in popular tradition is broken open to offer its contents, with a topological form whose interior flows into its exterior.’ — Castello di Rivoli

 

_____________
Giovanni Valderas Piñata Houses (2018)
‘Local artist Giovanni Valderas grew up in Oak Cliff. He misses the neighborhood he once knew. He’s seen all these changes firsthand — and he’s had enough. And, for the past few weeks, he’s been doing something about it. On Christmas Eve, Valderas started placing sad little piñata houses he’d made throughout Oak Cliff — namely around the Bishop Arts District and other areas currently undergoing top-to-bottom gentrification. His goal is to raise awareness about the disappearing affordable housing market in Oak Cliff through an approachable starting point.’ — Central Track

 

________________
Several women destroy a piñata with a figure that represents a sculpture by the Costa Rican artist Jorge Jimenez Deredia while singing in chorus ‘All his sculptures are the same’.

 

_____________
Justin Favela Various (2015 – 2019)
‘Though he lives in Las Vegas, Favela has a considerable following in Denver, where his large-scale piñata installations, including a tissue-paper tribute to Frida Kahlo and a life-sized lowrider piñata, have been exhibited at the Denver Art Museum and Museo de las Americas.’ — ACD

 

_____________
Aaron Krach Indestructible Object (2009)
”When you’re a kid and you go to a birthday party, bust the piñata, and all you get are hard candies, maybe peppermints or butterscotch balls, you’re angry!” And so, Krach fills his piñatas (there has been more than one) with expensive imported chocolate truffles in a few different flavors. From the shell of the piñata down to the candy, participants continually pull back layers. “Also very important,” he says, “is that they are wrapped in the most beautiful colorful foil. These chocolates are so pretty you don’t want to eat them, but of course that’s just like the piñata. You’ve got to open them in order to really enjoy them.”

 

_____________
Franco Mondini-Ruiz Contemporary Art Pinatas (2001 – 2014)

 

_____________
Franz West Epiphanie an Stühlen (2011)

 

_____________
A man from western Mexico tried to jump out of a church window and ended up hanging like a piñata while a policeman beat him with a broomstick. A mobile phone video posted on social media on Tuesday shows the moment a Tonalá police officer, Jalisco, clings to the left leg of the carjack. A crowd quickly gathers outside and urges another law enforcement officer to hit him with a stick.

 

_____________

 

_____________
Ronny Quevedo & Blanka Amezkua Rompe Puesto (2010)
‘New York-based artist Ronny Quevedo and artist Blanka Amezkua invited twenty-three emerging artists to create piñatas for the one-night exhibition and party, Rompe Puesto, at the Bronx River Art Center. (The event’s title loosely translates to “breaking ground.”)’ — Art21

 

________________
Mathias Goeritz Sculpture Piñata (1981)

 

________________
Unknown Unknown (Unknown)
‘I have tried to find out what this is and knowing how many world travelers ATS has, I thought someone could tell me. What is this weird ceremony? Is that Mao with Lenin in there?! Weird! Thanks!’ — Clearskies

 

________________
Paola Pivi They All Look the Same (2019)
‘These life-sized bear piñata sculptures are inspired by Pivi’s traumatic encounter with a polar bear years ago in Alaska.’ — artmacao

 

________________
Melissa The Unfortunate Truth (2015)
‘Hi. I am 11 yrs old. Whaling should be against the law, but for now some countries still do it under the legislation of science, but they eat them instead. This sculpture is a reflection of the whale’s emotions during the tragic events of getting harpooned. This sculpture is to make you think. So, what do you think?’ — Melissa

 

______________
Gaby Lopez Hunted Deer (2019)

 

________________
HangMeOfficial Horror Movie Piñatas (2019)
‘Also we have more pinatas that we can not post on etsy.’ — HMO

 

_______________
Sebastian Errazuriz Golden Calf (2014)
‘Sebastian Errazuriz caused quite a scene of the streets of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood last week with a giant, cash-stuffed piñata shaped like a golden cow. The glittering statue is meant to recall another iconic bovine: Arturo Di Modica‘s famed Wall Street Bull, which has become an internationally recognized symbol of the stock market’s resilience and capitalism’s bullishness. “The piece hints at the Capital system as an idol that we have worshiped for decades and is unfortunately proving to be false,” said Errazuriz. “There’s an urgent need for corrections to the Capital system that can offer a more fair redistribution of wealth.” There was an enticing extra incentive to take part in the collective calf-smashing, in case anti-Wall Street sentiment alone didn’t cut it: 1,000 $1 dollar bills stuffed inside the piñata, in a grown-up spin on the candy-stuffed versions so popular at children’s birthday parties. Predictably, participants quickly reverted to a capitalistic “every man for himself” mentality the minute the money began to rain, pushing and shoving one another while grabbing fistfuls of $1 bills—not that the artist expected anything else. “The people will be really excited to destroy the (symbol of) capital [and] will then end up running for the capital.”’ — artnet

 

_______________
Charlotte Sagory Various (2017 – 2019)

 

________________
Unknown Superman (2006)
‘It’s a flaming piñata. Supposedly its Superman? Feels weird.’ — Umberto Brayj

 

________________
Jennifer Rubell Andy Warhol Piñata (2018)
‘This year’s Brooklyn Ball will feature several art history-inspired works of food to make the evening fun and interesting for all who attend. The most visible of these takes the form of a twenty foot tall piñata in the shape of Andy Warhol’s head, which is currently installed in our Rubin Pavilion. The idea for the piñata came from Jennifer Rubell, who is creating these food installations inside the Brooklyn Museum that evening as a project she is calling “Icons.” What, you ask, will the piñata be filled with? That will be kept a secret—one staff co-worker hopefully quipped, “It’s going to be filled with $100 bills for staff, right?”—until the start of “High Style: The After Party,” which begins at 9 p.m. I have been told, however, that its contents will be edible.’ — Brooklyn Museum

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Yes, you’ve said that about how the camerawork in ‘AHL’ is a problem for you. As I’m pretty sure I’ve said before, I had a completely polar reaction. I sat straight up in my chair the whole three hours utterly exhilarated and astonished by the shots and camerawork. Zac and I still have long, impassioned talks about Malick’s camerawork in the film weeks later. Apples and oranges. Everyone, Mr. Ehrenstein alerts us to this aka ‘The 2019 Round-Up inks Galore to political blogs (including mine) dealing with the muck of Trump.’ ** Ian Berry, Hi, Ian. Thanks. I got in touch with you via email, and I woke up to find your responding email in my box, and I’ll write back to you today. HNY to you! ** Misanthrope, You get yourself things for Xmas? Is that Wines tradition or something? Never heard of such a thing. Early happy b’day to the mighty LPS. I’m hoping he’s doing okay these days. Was a time I guess quite a while ago now that there wasn’t used bookstore or thrift shop in the world that didn’t have at least one copy of ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ on the shelves. That was my dad’s favorite book. Never cracked it myself. Bad son. I can’t imagine watching ‘Little Women’ but who knows. More positive is the way to go, and in this climate it would be positively revolutionary. Cool, I’ll go over to The Weaklings Graveyard and hunt down that post about your friend then. ** Ferdinand, Happy it hit the mark although Marilyn and Dan get all the credit. I was just the construction site manager. ** _Black_Acrylic, I’m happy the post caught you. His films are very good, very interesting, and, yes, he’s a real champion and hero re: daring film in general. I’ve avoided the film adaption of Patrick’s novel like the plague for fear. Maybe I’ll dip in though and see if the waters are temperate. Thanks, Ben. ** Okay. You folks who’ve seen ‘Permanent Green Light’ know that my imagination holds a small place of honor for piñatas. I thought I’d extenuate that and share my interest with you this weekend. Done deal? See you on Monday.