US Photographer Brings Pop Culture to Mexico Murals
 Agence France-Presse
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| | US cult photographer David LaChapelle poses at his exhibit called "Delirium of Reason" in Mexico City on January 29, 2009. LaChapelle's work sits beside those of some of Latin America's most revered former muralists, including Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in the capital's historic center. (AFP/Alfredo Estrella) | |
Mexico City – Color-saturated images on themes of popular culture, war and religion line the stone walls of a former Jesuit college in a first Mexico City exhibition by cult US photographer David LaChapelle.
The surrealist photographer started out working with Andy Warhol and is famed for pictures of celebrities in unusual settings and pop videos, as well as the dance documentary film 'Rize.'
As Mexico City increasingly impacts on the contemporary art scene, LaChapelle's work sits beside those of some of Latin America's most revered former muralists, including Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in the sprawling capital's historic center.
"It's a huge exciting time for me to be here in Mexico. To be in a museum with someone who has inspired me so much as Diego Rivera is incredible," LaChapelle said at a news conference ahead of the four-month show, opening Tuesday.
LaChapelle said he was taking a break from celebrity work on his farm in the United States, after walking off the set of a Madonna video, when he got a call about the Mexico show, which features 64 of his works from between 1995 and 2008.
"It's very important to me to be able to communicate to people, and as the great muralists (like) Diego Rivera and the pop artists tried to communicate to the person on the street, not the handful of elitists, intellectuals, but to everybody," LaChapelle said.
The exhibition, titled "Delirium of Reason," includes images exploring celebrity and consumer culture as well as contemporary characters in Renaissance-style religious works, which could unsettle Mexico's influential Roman Catholic Church.
"The idea of organized religion interests me, and fundamentalists and how they've perverted those ideas," LaChapelle said.
Exhibition organizers said they were hoping to spark interest from all ages for the show.
"His work marks a new style of photography," Paloma Porraz, the museum's director, told AFP.
"His style is totally different in relation to the building, but we need to attract a wider public." |
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Vallarta Living | Art Talk | February 2009 
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