Canastas / Brooms, Mercados I (2003)

The first thing I do when I travel is go to a marketplace. During this experience I take the pulse of the town: its food, taste, smell, sound, esthetic form and texture. This visit gives me the measure and the basic understanding of a first meeting. In Mexico these encounters have seduced me, and I have fallen in love with their splendor. I was moved in Oaxaca to be in front of the cheeses that form white pyramids, the big baskets full of an immense variety of chilies in a thousand tones of red, the chocolate for mole in various tones of brown and black, the ingenious compositions made with bottles of mezcal. In Mexico City, I go to the Sonora Market and see the spaces dedicated to magic, where one can find herbs, potions, amulets and ritual objects. In Tepoztlan I discover crafts, jewelry and other objects and their way of being expressed. The Mexican market is an immensely rich visual and psychic encounter. These experiences inspire and push me to transform them into images and from there springs this work: “Markets.”

The series consists of a polyptych that is in constant evolution and whose number of pieces changes. These can be hung and viewed in many forms or placed on the floor, forming one large work. In this series I reaffirm my interest in the local, in the “good” bad taste, in the popular, in folklore, in the baroque, in the poetry of daily life and in finding beauty where it is not obvious. In these markets all my senses are activated, and I observe the place like a work of art that lends me its profound beauty, not to imitate, but to allow me to visually experiment with it various themes: the food, the objects, the maps of where they are found, the magic and its ingredients — amulets and textiles. I want these subjects to activate the memory and imagination, forcing spectators to re-view what has become familiar and known. I want to provoke the gaze. Through the fragmentation of the object, the construction, the use of collage, photography and the objects themselves, I assemble these pieces, which are a kind of puzzle, a game in which I invite you to participate.

Juanita Pérez-Adelman was born in Bogotá, Colombia. She graduated from California State University Northridge in 1977 with a master’s degree in Etching. She has been living in Mexico since 1987.

To contact Juanita Pérez-Adelman, please email juanitarte@hotmail.com or visit www.galeriacasalamm.com.mx and www.misrachi.com.mx.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGE SLIDESHOW

Elementos con que construir #1 Building Elements #1 Mercados I (2003)

Trenzas y bordados Braids and Embroidery Mercados I (2003)

Piñas Pineapples Mercados I (2003)

Ciudad de México mapa #3 Mexico City Map #3 Mercados I (2003)

Canastas Brooms Mercados I (2003)