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Maya Escobar

Conceptual Identity Artist

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acciones plásticas goes プリクラ chicano style

the-homegirl.jpg

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]

tags: Acciones Plásticas, Carinanne Noga, Chach, chica, chicano, chola, collaboration, hipster, homegirl, latina hipster, latina role model, midwestern, Nuevos Compañeros, purikura, Rio Yañez, seenoga, Sotomayor, stereotypes, west coast, wise latina
categories: Art, contmporary art, culture, Frida Kahlo, humor, identity, Latina, Maya Escobar, new media art, Performance, Stereotype, women, YouTube
Sunday 11.01.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Talking About Orchard Street

photo by Julian Voloj

Maya and Gonzalo Escobar create Talking about Orchard Street, a multi-sensory interactive installation that explores the generational transmission of Jewish life through dialog.  The father-daughter duo traveled from Chicago to New Haven to conduct interviews with former members and friends of Orchard Street Shul and to record locals’ stories of growing up in New Haven during the 1920s and 30s. These stories of everyday life include tales of flirting on the front steps of the shul, eating herring and kichel, speaking Jewish, finding first jobs, going on first dates, learning bar mitzvah portions, and hearing (or having) loud conversations in the women’s section.  In Talking about Orchard Street, visitors are invited to sit in comfortable armchairs, sample herring and kichel, listen to excerpts from interviews and engage in dialog with each other.click here for more information about the Orchard Street Shul Artist Cultural Heritage Project

tags: bilingual, collaboration, Gonzalo Escobar, installation, interviews, Jewish Life in America, new haven, orchard street shul, shul, Yale, Yiddish
categories: Art, contmporary art, exhibition, humor, identity, Judaism, Maya Escobar, new media art, Nuevos Compañeros
Saturday 10.31.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

SHOMER NEGIAH PANTIES ON ESTY

Shomer Negiah Panties have finally arrived!!  Get a them on ShomerNegiahPanties.com and EtsyShomer Negiah is a concept in Jewish law halacha that prohibits any degree of physical contact with, or touching of, a member of the opposite sex, except for one’s spouse and immediate family. Shomer means “guards”, but due to its common use in phrases relating to religious practice, it has come to mean: “adhere to” as well. Negiah is the Hebrew word for “touch”, and thus Shomer Negiah is a term used to describe one who “guards the touch” or simply “adheres to restrictions of touch”. Although the feminine form of the term is technically Shomeret Negiah, it is almost always used in the masculine, even when in reference to women. Shomer Negiah Panties allow a woman to abide by the halacha, but still be individual and sexy at the same time.

tags: channuka, etsy, feminism, fiber, girls, halacha, hiddur mitzvah, Jewish, Maya Escobar, Panties, shomer negiah panties, textile, tznius, women
categories: Art, feminist, humor, identity, Judaism, Shomer Negiah
Sunday 10.25.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

No Sos Frida Kahlo

no-sos-frida-kahlo.png

from obsessed with frida kahlo

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RrS5xvfRXg]

no sos frida kahlo, 2007

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsHCjxKoYc4]

puppets, 2007

tags: artist, bilingual, commodification, dolls, espanol, Frida Kahlo, Guatemala, intertextual, parents, rebbe painting, spanish, translation, vlog
categories: Art, artista, culture, identity, Maya Escobar, YouTube
Tuesday 10.20.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Orchard Street Artist Cultural Heritage Project

My father and I participated in the Orchard Street Artist Cultural Heritage Project.

orchard street site

During the months of December 2009 and January 2010, The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut will come alive with memories, recollections, and recreations of an important community heritage site,  in an innovative group installation designed to both stimulate reflection on the legacies of past generations and engage the public in dreams for the future.The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project is an art exhibition, a history lesson,  a point of cultural exchange, and meeting place for dreamers, both nostalgic and visionary.  Artists, researchers, and scholars have joined together to celebrate an important historic New Haven landmark which was once central to the life of a large Jewish immigrant population in the Oak Street neighborhood.Urban changes in the last 50 years have all but erased evidence illustrating the importance of the Oak Street neighborhood in the lives of the newly arrived immigrants and migrants who populated much of the area now known as the "Oak Street Connector", Route 34.  Where some see open space, or a new hospital, or a school, or a parking lot, others with longer memories see shops bustling with activity, voices shouting in Yiddish and Italian, sprinkled with a variety of accents from elsewhere, including near and distant regions within the USA.Contributions to the installation offer a range of approaches.  Some artists researched the history of the Orchard Street Shul and its neighborhood, uncovering multiple stories of this community: stories of women working together to aid refugees, stories of hard-working fathers and mothers who dedicated themselves to making a better life for their children, and stories of teenagers who giggled and mingled on the steps of the Shul.   Others built on their own experiences, reaching into their hearts to create depictions of the Shul that are evocative of deeper connections with history and community.  Still others focused on the issues of urban renewal, making real the shifts in our urban landscape that are difficult to imagine as we visit the site today.Included in the Project are presentations by researchers from Yale University who developed innovative ways to document the building, including  virtual reconstructions exploring new digital methods, ground-breaking research by computer scientists that promises to change the ways that cultural heritage sites will be documented in the future.  Some contributing artists used this digital data in their creative work.The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Project is organized by Cynthia Beth Rubin, a New Haven based artist, in collaboration with participating artists and researchers: Nancy Austin, Meg Bloom, DonnaMaria Bruton, Jeanne Criscola, Roslyn Z. Croog, Linda Drazen, Paul Duda, Gonzalo Escobar,  Maya Escobar, Alan Falk, Greg Garvey, Shalom Gorewitz, Jaime Kriksciun, Leslie J. Klein, Beth Krensky, Seth Lamberton, Mary Lesser, Lisa Link, David Ottenstein, Bruce Oren, Robert Rattner, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Holly Rushmeier, Janet Shafner, Frank Shifreen, Suzan Shutan, Sharon Siskin, Christina Spiesel, Yona Verwer, Julian Voloj, Laurie Wohl, Chen Xu, and Howard el-Yasin.  The group includes artists from California, Florida, Utah, Missouri, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, who traveled to New Haven to contribute to the project alongside artists from the region.A Project Book is being published in conjunction with the exhibition, including essays by Haisia Diner, the eminent scholar of Jewish immigration history,  Walter Cahn, renowned historian of art and and architecture, and Hana Iverson, known for her remarkable multi-media installation "View from the Balcony"  that was instrumental in helping attract attention to the renovation project of the Eldridge Street Shul.  The book will also feature photographs of the works in the exhibition and memories of the Orchard Street Shul, with commentary by Karen Schiff.  The innovative book design is by Criscola Design.The Public is Invited to the Opening Reception for the Participating Artists,  on Sunday, December 6, from 12:00 Noon to 5:00 pm.    To set the mood for the launch of “The Orchard Street Shul Artists Cultural Heritage Project”, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale for Jewish Life at Yale will host a Jazz jam session on December 5 at 7:30, celebrating the swing dance music of 1924 and beyond, when the cornerstone of this Synagogue was put in place in a ceremony attended by Mayor Fitzgerald and much of the entire New Haven community.The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art is open W-F, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, and weekends 2:00 pm  to 5:00 pm.  Schools and other organizations who would like to arrange a group visit outside of regular hours may do so by sending an email to: arts@orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org.

tags: Alan Falk, architecture, Beth Krensky, Bruce Oren, Chen Xu, Christina Spiesel, collaboration, community, Cynthia Beth Rubin, David Ottenstein, Donnamarie Bruton, Frank Shifreen, Gonzalo Escobar, Greg Garvey, Holly Rushmeier, Howard el-Yasin, installtion, interviews, Jaime Kriksciun, Janet Shafner, Jeanne Criscola, Jewish, Joyce Burstein, Julian Voloj, Laurie Wohl, Leslie J- Klein, Linda Drazen, Lisa Link, Mary Lesser, Maya Escobar, Nancy Austin- Meg Bloom, new haven, Orchard Street Artist Cultural Heritage Project, Paul Duda, psychogeography, Robert Rattner, Roz Croog, Seth Lamberton, Shalom Gorewitz, Sharon Siskin, Suzan Shutan, trans-disciplinary, urban, Yale, Yona Verwer
categories: contmporary art, culture, exhibition, identity, Jewish Life in America, Judaism
Tuesday 10.13.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Lady Gaga at the LGBT National Equality March

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNx95U1Q_vE]"Obama, I know you are listening... ARE YOU LISTENING... We will continue to push you and your administration to bring your words of promise to a reality."

tags: activism, equality, gay rights, Lady Gaga, LGBT, LGBT National Equality March, march, obama, pop star, youth
categories: Barack Obama, culture, feminist, political, YouTube
Monday 10.12.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Mercedes Sosa y Shakira

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLWiFivak1c]Mercedes Sosa y Shakira grabando La Maza

tags: Argentina, La Maza, Mercedes Sosa, music, Shakira, YouTube
categories: culture, Latina
Friday 10.09.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Nuevos Compañeros: Rio Yañez

ghetto-fridas-mission-memories.jpg

My newest partner in crime is the talented, witty, godzilla and pikapika lovin' Chicano artist and curator Rio Yañez. I first came across his Ghetto Frida two years ago, while working on the project Obsessed With Frida Kahlo. Immediately I felt some sort of cosmic connection-not to Ghetto Frida- but to her creator. And then to make matters worse better, I found out that he is the son of one my biggest heroes- Yolanda Lopez!There was really no option other than collaboration.  It was fate.Last month we finally initiated our long distance partnership through a tweet.  Since then we have been communicating through TwitPic, Facebook, YouTube, phone calls and texts,  and of course mutual shouts in interviews on the blogosphere (mine to Rio &  Rio's  to me.)Here are a few examples of Rio's recent work:

Amber Rose by El Rio.

"I’ve been twittering for about a week now at http://twitter.com/rioyanez. I signed up as a way to contact Amber Rose after she started writing and posting about the portrait I created of her. I have to say, the most exciting aspect of twitter is the way people distribute images. The short urls for twitpics that often pop up on tweets evoke a sense of curiosity in me; more so than the many thumbnails that can be found on facebook. I think the lack of a thumbnail is more alluring and it forces you to chose to see the image or not, there’s no middle ground of a provided preview." (from his blog)

"Artist Curator Rachel-Anne Palacios flanked by Zitlalix and I. I created this portrait to thank Rachel for including me in the recent Frida exhibit she curated and to join the many artists who are on display on the walls of her apartment" (from flickr)

These images represent my first foray into my Raza Zombies series. They were inspired by the single best mainstream comic book of the 21st century: Marvel Zombies. Marvel Zombies re-imagines classic superheroes as flesh eating zombies. After reading it I felt compelled to do some zombie transformations on a few of my own personal heroes. More to come. (from flickr)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AhRQrJ7ePg]

Video of Gomez Peña setting the record straight for Rio regarding his Facebook presence.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QycIf6uKRd0]

Rio's Ghetto Frida Mural in the Mission District

stay tuned for more...

tags: amber rose, artist, arts, chicano, collaboration, curator, facebook, flickr, Frida Kahlo, Ghetto Frida, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Marvel Zombies, mission district, mural, Obsessed With Firda Kahlo, Rachel-Anne Palacios, Raza Zombies, Rio Yañez, Twitpic, twitter, wise latina, Yolanda Lopez
categories: Art, artista, blogging, contmporary art, culture, curatorial, humor, identity, intertextual, Latina, Maya Escobar, Nuevos Compañeros, YouTube
Wednesday 09.30.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

new year

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/3711676643_7455fc93af.jpg

photo by Gina Grafos

Hello blogosphere!So it is a new year and a new beginning...  Loren and I have spent the last 3 months in happy newly wed bliss.  He is kicking butt in law school and it seems his band Cavalry is getting more and more attention everyday.  I have a number of really exciting projects on the horizon- all collaborations- which I plan to blog about in the months to come.It feels good to be back.Maya

tags: blogosphere, Cavalry, colllaboration
categories: blogging, Maya Escobar
Wednesday 09.30.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

morning judge of character

http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c54102/app3352611253803931.jpg

tags: Big Lebowski, commentary, comments, grid, Jewish Life in America, social media, TweetPhoto
categories: culture, intertextual, Judaism, Maya Escobar, Pop Culture, YouTube
Thursday 09.24.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Interview on Blogadera

I was interviewed on the Latino Blog Directory site Blogaderaclick here for full interview:

Here we are with Maya Escobar. An artist and educator whose art, personality and opinions come to life by way of her blog and social media extensions.  We are thrilled to have her on to talk about her background, blogging and sharing her blogging experience with the rest of the blogadera.When did you start blogging? What prompted you to pick it up.I started blogging in 2005, at the time I was completing my degree in art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  I was interested in connecting with other artists, activists, students and educators to share ideas and resources.What do you blog about? Why?I blog about issues that relate to the artworks I am producing (basically concepts I am thinking about). Topics include: the construction of identity, hybridity, sexuality, education, placelessness, immigration, activism, religion, and mental health.Can you give us a little bit of background on Maya Escobar?Well… it just so happens that I just posted a new “about me” to my website:I am a performance artist, Internet curator, and editor. I use the web as a platform for engaging in critical community dialogues that concern processes by which identities are socially and culturally constructed. I perform multiple identities and sample widely from online representations and existing cultural discourses. My identifications as a Latina-Jewish artist, dyslexic blogger, activist and educator are indexed by the blogs I keep, the visual and textual links I post, the books, articles, and blog posts I cite, the public comments I leave, and the groups I join.By examining and re-imagining my personal experiences, I attempt to provide others with a framework for questioning societal limitations based on gendered and racialized cultural generalizations.(if you found that about me too dull there is a post on my blog where I describe myself as an elephant)Does your blog reflect your culture? Is this intentional or just a natural byproduct?I hope that my blog reflects a culture of critical inquiry, communal dialogue, and collaboration. (this would be intentional)What is the state of the Latino Blogosphere? Do you see it growing? Any Examples?I see more and more Latina and Latino bloggers every day.  But what I find most exciting is when those bloggers are young people and they are blogging with a positive message.  A wonderful example that I have found is MyLatinitas.com the social networking platform hosted by Latinitas Magazine. Here young Latinas are actively sharing their thoughts on politics, culture, education, and family.You work alot with videos…do you consider yourself a vlogger? If so, can you define that for us!hmm… I am not really sure if I consider myself to be a vlogger.  When I think of a vlogger, I think of a person who makes videos that contain similar content to content that would be included in a blog post (such as current events, politics, or personal observations.) Maybe, I am a part time vloggerAny advice for Latinos who want to start blogging?I think it is important to get a sense of why it is that you want to blog, what will your blog say about you, and how you envision your blog interacting with your personal and professional life.Write about issues that you are passionate about, in a way that other people can relate to.  Use the Internet for all it can do- link between your own posts and link to posts written by others.  Read other people’s blogs and comment!  If you want people to be interested in the things you are writing about know what they are writing about!And most importantly when you can, blog in Spanish!What blogs do you follow or subscribe to? Favorites?I just started reading VivirLatino which led me to the awesome blog of La Mamita Mala. I have been following Latina Lista for sometime, Rio Yañez and his buddy Maya Chinchilla, Sergio Antonio, Jorge Linares…… the list just keeps on growing…What are you favorite social media sites and how do you use these tools in your day-to-day?At this point twitter, youtube, flickr and wordpress are the sites that I most commonly use. My activity on all of theses sites crosses over.  For example, I might write a post on my blog, that will include a youtube video and images I posted onto flickr.  Then I send a tweet that includes either a segment of my blog post, an image from the post, or some of the tag words describing the post.Do you divide social media by purpose, friends, professional v. personal, etc.?Not really, for the most part my personal life is my professional life.What’s next for Maya? What do we have to look forward to from you?I am working with my father on developing my first performance piece entirely in Spanish. We are using a recording of an interview my mother conducted with my abuelita in 1985, as source material for the monologue I will be performing recounting her experiences, but as myself- two generations removed……I am also planning a piece with fellow artist and blogger Rio Yañez surrounding the Wise Latina phenomenon.  I don’’t want to give too many details away, but I can promise there is going to be a Top 10 list!wise latina on Twitpic[more]check out other Blogadera interviews with Carrie Fergerson and Jo Ann Hernandez
tags: activism, artist, blogosphere, collaboration, construction of identity, critical inquiry, dyslexic blogger, education, educator, flickr, hybridity, immigration, internet curator, latina jewish, latino, mental health, MyLatinitas, performance artist, placelessness, religion, Rio Yañez, School of the Art Insittute of Chicago, sexuality, social media, twitter, vlogging, wise latina
categories: artista, blogging, culture, identity, intertextual, Latina, Maya Escobar, SAIC, YouTube
Tuesday 09.15.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

every blog needs a break

I promise to come back soon.  I just needed a moment to pause and re-collect.Maya

tags: blogging, break
categories: Maya Escobar
Friday 07.24.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

take a picture of me for my myspace

be-wife.jpg

In October of 2006 my rabbi started blogging. While trying to comment on one of his posts, I accidentally registered my own blog. Within hours of posting a comment, my name began appearing in Google searches. I was now linked to the post I had commented on, previous posts my rabbi had written, comments left by other users and the posts they had written elsewhere within the blogosphere. The rapidity with which I was branded, not only by my own online activity, but also by the online activity of others, seemed incomprehensible.http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/407330068_cef67d7d48.jpg?v=0I thought about this phenomenon in relationship to, the images that my friends and I had posted on Myspace throughout that year. I unknowingly went from being slightly annoyed and simultaneously amused by the phrase "take a picture of me for my Myspace", to it becoming completely natural and almost organic to document every moment, every outing, every time my friends and I put on make up, and to take pictures for Myspace. I saw this behavior even further exaggerated in the high school students I was student teaching. Their conversations were dominated with events that had transpired on Myspace, and when they were not talking about Myspace they were taking pictures for Myspace.When we talked about the factors that contributed to the construction of their individual and collective identities, my students were quick to bring up their style of dress, group of friends, the neighborhood they lived in, and the way they spoke. Yet not a single student referenced their online activity, the pictures they posted, the groups they joined, the comments they left on each others pages. I wondered why it was, that they were so aware of and adept at reflecting upon their experiences in the material offline world, but failed to mention the social network that played such a major role in their day-to-day lives.DECONSTRUCTING PERSONAL IDENTITYthe chach(today) I am referring to myself as a performance artist, Internet curator, and editor.  I create and (concurrently) perform multiple online identities, by sampling from different representations of existing cultural discourses. I fragment my personal experiences and invite  others to join in, and modify and regroup those fragments. By doing this I hope to share the process through which I  deconstruct and reconstruct my individual conception of self, so that others can do the same in their lives.In the series Acciones Plásticas I performed representations of five constructed characters: a religious Jewish woman, a spoiled Jewish girl, a ghetto Latina, a sexy Latina professor, and a Mayan woman. I created low quality YouTube video blogs for four of the characters, the Mayan woman did not have a video, as she would not have had access to YouTube technologies. The videos were strategically placed on popular social networking sites, including YouTube and MySpace. The layout of YouTube contextualized the videos and framed them with user comments and similarly tagged user content. Jewish Girls was picked up by a popular left-wing Jewish blogging site Jewschool, and soon entered the Jewish Blogosphere where it was referred to as the JAP. This repositioning shifted the focus from the portrayal of multiple interwoven identities to a depiction of the Jewish American Princess. The JAP became how people knew my work, validating me while simultaneously conflating my identity with that of this particular character.http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3362/3521552366_98c65eccfe.jpg?v=0One of the strategies that I employed to counteract idea of "me as The JAP" was to group videos from the series  Acciones Plásticas together with three other Youtube videos in a video reel of my work. The first video in the reel,  el es frida kahlo is me dressed as Frida Kahlo where I violently scream I am Frida Kahlo! In second video Be Wife, I wear a bright red bikini top in front of an image of a Mayan temple in Tikal. Traditional Guatemalan marimba music plays in the background, while red text scrolls across the top reading Guatemala's finest export. The third video Que Sencilla, features me as a little girl, who is being coaxed by an off-camera male voice to perform a dance for the camera.Someone who is expecting to see a Jewish American Princess, is instead greeted with an enragedel es frida kahlo Latina artist, trying to fight the stigma of being associated with Frida Kahlo. My inclusion of these additional videos was to show the multidimensionality of the five characters initially presented in Acciones Plásticas. The Mayan women does not have her own YouTube video, but with the addition of the Be Wife video, her absence is felt even greater. The face of Guatemala in these videos, is the chest of a mail order bride. Another example can be seen within the four original videos themselves. With the grouping of the ghetto latina with the sexy latina professor, vast cultural and class difference can be seen between the two representations of Latina women. Put together with el es frida kahlo and Be Wife, there are suddenly five Latina performers all acting on one stage.

tags: Acciones Plásticas, artist, be wife, commodification, feminism, Frida Kahlo, google, guatemalan, guatemalan performance artist, Hispanic, internet curator, intertextual, JAP, Jewish, Jewish American Princess, jewish artist, Jewish Life in America, jewish performance artist, judasim, latina stereotypes, offline, online, performance artist, que sencilla, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Sexy, shalom rav, social networking, stereotypes, teaching
categories: Art, art-education, artista, blogging, contmporary art, culture, curatorial, feminist, Guatemala, identity, Judaism, Latina, Maya Escobar, multicultural art, myspace, new media art, Performance, Stereotype, women, YouTube
Monday 05.11.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Jewish Girls Youtube Comments

Jewish Girls from the series Acciones Plásticas

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBjBN0ftcP0]Responses to Jewish Girls

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQphBV2Q0ZE]

tags: Acciones Plásticas, anti-semitism, commentary, cultural identity, cyber, feminism, hatred, intertextual, JAP, Jewish, Jewish American Princess, jewish girls, Jewish Life in America, vlog
categories: Art, artista, contmporary art, culture, feminist, identity, Judaism, Maya Escobar, new media art, racism, Stereotype, women, YouTube
Sunday 05.03.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Berlin's Eruv Video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGjJhIFUNGA][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CycyYiY933A][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM4rrhbj5U]click here to visit website

tags: artist, berlin, culture, eruv, germany, interview, jewish artist, jewish education, judasim, memorial, monument, moshe or, Moti Moscovici, psychogeography, Sam Fox, st- louis, thesis, Washington University in St- Louis, yeshiva, yeshivish
categories: Art, berlin's eruv, contmporary art, exhibition, identity, Maya Escobar, MFA, new media art, YouTube
Saturday 05.02.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Sarah Jones on TED 2 loves combined

My friend Jamie Aguirre  who you can visit here and here posted this wonderful  Sarah Jones video for TED on my facebook page.Jones asks to what extent do we self construct?[ted id=http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/527]I feel like a little kid in a candy store, really, I do.Here is another Sarah Jones video.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmaWDCH2tBg]Have I mentioned how amazing I think she is?Thanks Jamie!

tags: cultural identity, hip hop, poet, sarah jomes, spoken word
categories: culture, feminist, humor, identity, multicultural art, Performance, political, Stereotype, Talented Female Artists, TED, women, YouTube
Thursday 04.30.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Fritz and Carianne: Litter and Paper Airplanes

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aicKK2IkQzg][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wyLF3DXK4I]

tags: carianne noga, contemporary art, Rhizome, video
categories: Art, contmporary art, culture, curatorial, new media art, Talented Female Artists, YouTube
Wednesday 04.29.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Ga Bless you Ma

From the Vanessa Hidary the Hebrew Mamita[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbZ131lXoiY]UPDATE: this post generated these responsesRIO YANEZ:

El Rio’s got The Hebrew Mamita’s back in the Bay Area, f’sho!

Hidary’s ability to discuss her Jewish identity and experiences while talkin’ hella mad shit is amazing. She’s a kindred spirit to my Ghetto Frida project. After watching the videos on her youtube page I didn’t hesitate for a minute to head over to the official Hebrew Mamita online store and purchase her CD. She describes the album as “not appropriate for young children but spectacular for adults with flava!” a line I’m kicking myself for not coming up with.El Rio’s got The Hebrew Mamita’s back in the Bay Area, f’sho!

ALIZA HAUSMAN:

The YouTube video below is the Puerto Rican Jewess's riff on "Ga Bless You Ma." For those of you innocents, this is a common enough phrase slung at female passerby by tigueritos hanging out on the street corners of Washington Heights and other New York City 'hoods. And just in case you think I can't spell, there's nothing religious about the phrase...at least not when you say it like that.You might want to prepare for the video by rereading my earlier blog posts, "Hispanic Woman Walking" and "My Mother Wore Tight Pants".

tags: hip hop, poetry, spoken word
categories: culture, identity, Jewish Life in America, Performance, Talented Female Artists, women, YouTube
Wednesday 04.29.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

ongoing intertextual exchange

The other day I posted a link on facebook to an article by Kevin Kelly on vizual literacy. Both Eric Repice and Eliyahu Enriquez responded to this post, and Eliyahu wrote a post about this exchange on his blog....The following is a repost of Eliyahu's post Vizual LiteracyRT/Hat Tip @mayaescobar Tools for VizualityExcerpt from Fb Thread Transcript:

In archiving poems in blog format, I find embedding videos with a distinct narrative to the word-piece heightens the sensory experience: simultaneous stimuli, rather than a replacement paradigm with regards to medium. The experimental nature of combining/utilizing moving images with poetry, such as those of Filipino Author, Nick Carbó, hints at what I'm trying to get at, though the idea I'm reaching for may be more a novelty for Literary marketing strategies/accessibility on the web... With an accompanying video in whatever length, the reader is more likely to stay with the poem, rather than a wham-bam!-thank you, sir means of creative dissection. Whereas, to capture the essence of canonization - the written word to a cinematic language, while maintaining their distinction - that's something I'm currently playing with...What Would Judas Do?

"I visited a sage, Rav Yosef Shalom Eliashuv, who lives in one of the most secluded ultra-Orthodox communities in Jerusalem. He was in poor health but still taking visitors... Speaking in Hebrew, I told him what, at the time, I felt was the truth. 'Master, I am attracted to both men and women. What shall I do?' He responded, 'My dear one, my friend, you have twice the power of love. Use it carefully' - Rabbi Steven Greenberg."

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu2tkyEWiZc]

I am attracted to

He loved me.He loved me not.

I love bringing pleasure too

She loves mi.She loves mi knot.

The Art of Couch-Hopping

Lark descending.Lost Ark.

As Queer as A Clockwork Orange

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uc30u1r81k]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNcyoT1xLTU]
Sources:

Maya Escobar's YouTube ChannelNick Carbó's YouTube ChannelEliyahu Enriquez's YouTube Channel

tags: collaboration, eric-repice, facebook, gender, intertextual, madkamp, Maya Escobar, poetry, queer, twitter, visual literacy, vizual literacy
categories: Art, blogging, culture, hip hop, identity, new media art, YouTube
Tuesday 04.28.09
Posted by maya escobar
 

Artista disléxica del Internet

latina-role-model.png

Por David Sperber en Ma’arav Israeli Arts and Culture MagazineTraducción de Gonzalo Escobar (de Traducción de Shlomit Nehorai)Maya Escobar es sin ninguna duda una de las personas más de moda en el desarrollo del arte judío-estadounidense. Escobar se define como “artista disléxica del Internet”. Y para ver su trabajo uno no necesita ir muy lejos.Su trabajo es creado principalmente en el formato familiar del Internet, y se puede ver más frecuentemente en Youtube. Escobar es hija de madre Judía y de padre Guatemalteco, ella define su trabajo personal y versátil de arte como una investigación antropológica-sociológica dentro de la narrativa que utiliza medios electrónicos contemporáneos.Acciones Plásticas incluye películas de corto metraje que presentan una serie de caracteres persuasivos y monólogos en los que se cuestiona la identidad. En la primera película de corto metraje de la serie aparece, vestida como la artista mexicana Frida Kahlo quien se convirtió en un ícono dentro del discurso feminista. Se argumenta comúnmente que Kahlo tenía algunas raíces judías. Escobar aparece vestida como Kahlo con sus famosas cejas mientras que grita “Yo soy Frida Kahlo.  Usted es Frida Kahlo.  Nosotros somos Frida Kahlo”. En agitación o en éxtasis se desgarra su ropa, se despeina, se quita el maquillaje y vuelve a ser ella misma.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlMPoFXRT18]

el es frida kahlo

En la otra película de corto metraje de la serie, ella continúa con un monólogo de una mujer ortodoxa judía. El texto aquí es tan exacto que por un minuto la línea entre la ironía y la comedia burda y la seriedad profunda es borrosa.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H8mpau6dSc]En otra película de corto metraje se presenta  el estereotipo de mujer latina como objeto sensual sexual, cuando aquí el tema se desenvuelve también entre la aprobación y la destrucción de los estereotipos. Escobar presenta diversos episodios basados en la realidad que ella misma ha experimentado enfocados en su identidad híbrida como mujer, como judía y como latinoamericana.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1X1igrL4U]Otro trabajo de Escobar es  My Shtreimel (Mi sombrero de peluche judío de Europa Oriental) - un vídeo-blog que también se puede encontrar en Youtube. En esta sección aparece un joven de más de veinte años que está sentado frente a una  computadora y habla de sus rituales del Shabbat (el día de descanso para los judíos). El monólogo describe un mundo judío amorfo en el cual la esencia judía viva y material no es obligatoria a sus instituciones, sobre todo en el marco personal. Una parte central en este mundo es la auto depreciación de uno mismo: El joven muestra su querido shtreimel y menciona que el shtreimel que se ve como el sombrero tradicional es realmente un sombrero de mujer comprado en una tienda de segunda.

berlin's eruv

En el trabajo “eruv”*  (entremezclarse)  Escobar relata el hecho que en Berlín no hay ningún eruv aun cuando allí existe una comunidad judía vibrante. En una serie de entrevistas fotografiadas con los habitantes de la ciudad ella transforma la noción del eruv - en una noción legal halajá (recopilación de las principales leyes judías) que crea una transformación del espacio público en el espacio privado, en una mezcla - la creación múltiple de caracteres y de mundos. El eruv se transforma en un concepto cultural que celebra lo diferente y lo único. Los individuos crean un mosaico espléndido que ensambla un grupo “colectivo” diferente como concepto social. La forma en que Escobar trata el tema es típico al mundo judío-estadounidense del arte que tiende a transferir los conceptos del halajá práctico y para transferirlo a otro mundo, y así se transforma en una metáfora de la condición personal o social. La experiencia personal es significativa a Escobar.  Como otros rituales judíos, el Shabbat abarca los sentidos prácticos que materializan la condición privada en un espacio privado. Excepto que el entendimiento del espacio privado y del espacio público es fluido y cambia siempre. Yo pienso que es muy importante de que la gente celebre su Shabbat como experiencia agradable, definida y personal. Los rituales del Shabbat evolucionan con el tiempo - no como obligación inamovible que se transfiere de generación en generación, pero como resultado de una opción simple del individuo de crear él/ella las mismas costumbres agradables de Shabbat. Todos tenemos esta clase de costumbres.”El uso intercontinental del Internet dio a luz a una generación de individuos que crean algo solo por el hecho de crear algo, y el concepto del crear arte por el hecho del crear arte consigue de esa manera un nuevo significado. Los medios de comunicación del Internet conectan a individuos y contribuyen mutuamente a entrelazar a la gente que trabaja por separado en lugares lejanos. El trabajo nuevo del Internet desafía las viejas definiciones en lo referente a lo qué se considera arte y a lo que no es. De igual manera, adopta nuevas formas de la presentación que no son la norma en la corriente principal del mundo del arte, y le revigoriza al campo del arte.La discusión del trabajo de Escobar conduce a una discusión más amplia sobre las diferencias entre el pensamiento judío en la conversación israelita en la nueva comprensión de la opinión estadounidense del mundo. El compromiso judío-artístico en los Estados Unidos está influenciado por la introducción de las ideas de la nueva era en el centro de la conversación, y está integrando en el esfuerzo de crear una conexión entre la cultura contemporánea y la identidad judía tradicional. Dentro de la comunidad estadounidense-judía hay muestras de un movimiento de una expresión judía institucional organizada en una expresión única y personal de  experiencias muy personales. Estos artistas que reorganizan las tradiciones en sus propios términos, y de esta manera contribuye no insignificantemente a la definición  Ortodoxo-Moderno No-Ortodoxo Judío-Estadounidense nuevamente. El acoplamiento entre la cultura judía y la identidad judía al arte ocupa un papel central en esta conversación.Los ecos de esta tendencia se pueden encontrar también en Israel (por ejemplo, en la cultura joven de Yiddish {idioma hablado por los judíos de Europa Oriental}  en Tel Aviv), pero generalmente todavía hay una desconexión profunda entre los conceptos dominantes en Israel y en los Estados Unidos. En Israel es común la conexión  entre el judaísmo con una tradición organizada y con el linaje o la línea de sangre y la consanguinidad basada en una continuidad genética. Por otra parte, muchos judío-estadounidenses jóvenes se casan fuera de su religión, pero sin embargo ellos se ven como parte integral del mundo judío y saben que no serán expulsados por esto. En comparación con los israelíes que experimentan su identidad judía en términos de desintegración que siguió la restauración, los judío-estadounidenses crean  nuevas ramas donde las metáforas del crecimiento y del renacimiento se acoplan mejor.La unión de la cultura y del arte contemporáneos a la creatividad judía se expresa en características de moda como tatuajes, música hip-hop, arte del Internet y otras formas similares, y se entiende a menudo como la desconexión con la dicotomía dualista aceptada entre lo sagrado y lo mundano. Esto es porqué los tradicionalistas consideran estas formas de arte como provocación peligrosa. La interconexión cultural de estos nuevos conceptos durante discusiones desafiantes con los viejos conceptos culturales. Filológicamente hablando se puede decir que pedir prestados símbolos a partir de una disciplina a otra interfiere con los sistemas semióticos. En el lenguaje Cabalístico (kabbalah o  cábala  es una de las principales corrientes de la mística judía) se dice que la energía creada durante la fricción  producida por la desintegración de las cosas va a crear generalmente “nueva luz”.* De acuerdo a la religión judía durante el Shabbat lo judíos no pueden hacer ningún trabajo, ni tampoco llevar cosas fuera de sus casas o de las murallas de su ciudad. Cuando la ciudad o pueblo no tiene murallas, se tiene que construir un “eruv”, que es una construcción de cables y postes para así poder marcar los límites físicos del pueblo y esto se convierte en una estructura virtual imaginaria.

tags: Acciones Plásticas, berlin, cultura, eruv, espanol, Estados Unidos, Estadounidense, Frida Kahlo, Guatemala, hip hop, hispana, identidad, internet, intertextual, Israel, jovenes, judaismo, Judío, judia, kabbalah, Latina, mujer, Ortodoxo, shabbat, Yiddish, YouTube
categories: Art, artista, contmporary art, identity, Maya Escobar, Stereotype, women
Tuesday 04.21.09
Posted by maya escobar
 
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