belated valentines day love from el rio

Sorry for the delay in this post. I have been in Chicago tied up with CAA, so much so, that the lovely Hallmark holiday of love, almost slipped through my fingers. But have no fear, I am back with full force, presenting my now frequent colllaborator Rio Yañez's pop culture, commodified, chicano, arty valentines amazingness.

From his El Rio flickr page:

What’s up to all my friends, lovers, and drunken makeout partners! El Rio’s Valentine’s Day Cards are back in the ring to take another swing for 2010! This is the 4th year of my cards and it's turned into my longest running project. Enjoy!

As always, please post these cards on the pages of your friends, enemies, sexting partners, craigslist hookups, and friends with benefits.

Stimulus, 2010

Sotomayor, 2010

Supa Freaks, 2008

El Rio's Valentine's Day Cards # 2, 2007

Moz Lov, 2009

acciones plásticas goes プリクラ chicano style

Acciones Plásticas プリクラ

Acciones Plásticas プリクラ is a collaboration between artists Maya Escobar and Rio Yañez.

The Latina Hipstera bad-ass Morrissey-lovin’, tuff-girl sexy chicaThe Latina Role Modela diploma totin’ intellectual, sexy, social media goddessThe Homegirla hybridized version of Escobar’s Midwestern Chach and Yañez’s West Coast Chola.In Acciones Plásticas Escobar created a multi-faceted “doll” by assuming the role of designer and distributor, and even posing as the actual doll itself.  Each doll was a satirical characterization of some of the many roles that have been projected upon her, and into which she has, at points, inevitably fallen. In conjunction with these images, she developed a short series of low-definition youtube video blogs through which she inhabits the lives of “real women” who have each been visibly defined by societal constructs.Recently, Yañez has been utilizing Japanese photobooths (known as Purikura or “print-club”) as an artist’s tool for creating portraits. These booths are much more common in Japan than their United States counterparts. As a catalyst for creative expression and social interaction they are used primarily by young urban Japanese girls. A standard feature in all Purikura booths allows the user to digitally decorate their portraits after they take them. The options are vast and include wild characters, excessive starbursts of light, pre-made phrases and the option to draw your own text directly on the image. Purikura gives the subjects near-divine powers of self-expression in crafting their own portraits.The two artists who met over the web, decided to bring together Escobar’s highly charged and evocative Acciones Plásticas characters with Yanez’s notorious Chicano graphic-art style and new found obsession with Purikura images, as a way of addressing the construction of Latina identities.Maya posed as The Latina Hipster: a bad-ass Morrissey-lovin’, tuff-girl sexy chica; The Latina Role Model: a diploma totin’ intellectual, sexy, social media goddess; and finally, The Homegirl: a hybridized version of Escobar’s Midwestern Chach (or Chachi Mama) and Yañez’s West Coast Chola. Maya sent digital images to Rio, who in turn drew portraits of her as each of these constructed identities. He approached each portrait with a Purikura sensibility and decorated them each as the characters represented might accessorize themselves. The final series of portraits is the result of negotiating multiple identities and influences. Guatemalan, Jewish, and Chicano sensibilities reflected back through a Japanese Purikura aesthetic. Acciones Plásticas プリクラ challenge and question the thin line between archetype and stereotype. The Purikura elements present the novel signifiers of each social construct represented in the series.This collaboration is the first of many to come as Maya and Rio explore the commonalities and differences of their cultural identities.For more information on Acciones Plásticas プリクラcheck out Rio's blog and stay tuned for guest post by seeNoga aka Carianne Noga on meeting the Chach Homegirl in real life.(video of the Chach featured below)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj3Q42YF40Y]