Flash Art International, June 2001
First Serrano, Then Ofili, Now Lopez
U.S. Struggle Between the Secular and the Sacred Continues
By Clayton Campbell
The titanic struggle between the secular and the sacred has taken another
disturbing turn in the United States. Alma Lopez, a feminist Latina artist
from Los Angeles, is the center of a growing controversy over her mixed media
imagery. A photo based work, "Our Lady", has been on display in
Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Museum of International Folk Art as part of "Cyber-
Arte: Tradition Meets Technology." Lopez depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe
partly undressed, posed in a noble stance reflecting the strong women Lopez
grew up around in East LA. Though meant by the artist as homage to the Virgin
and the real women she knows, "Our Lady" has been denounced by Archbishop
of Santa Fe Michael Sheehan as "a tart". The New Mexico Catholic
Churchs very public and inflammatory stance helped provoke wide spread
demonstrations by Latinos against Lopez, tinged with homophobia when it became
known the artist is unashamedly Lesbian.
"Our Lady" thus becomes the next battleground
over basic civil rights in the United States. As of this writing, the museum
has compromised and agreed to shorten the length of the exhibition
rather than take the offending work down. Meanwhile, the protests have spread
to Southern California, where fundamentalist hate groups have been phoning
in threats to the museum seeking to find the artist and burn down her studio.
Ms. Lopez is forced to keep a low profile in case the threats are acted upon.
Southern Californian police agencies have been brought into the equation for
security purposes.
Lopez is known locally for her provocative,
beautiful and intelligent photo manipulated prints, reflecting the rich heritage
of the East LA art scene. Her work is influenced by the populist, representational
narrative visual language contemporary LA Latino artists have brilliantly
invented. The controversy is helping bring her uniquely original work to national
attention, but like Serrano or Ofili its at a personal cost which only
those artists who have been lightning rods for an intense degree of hate can
attest to. Perhaps not coincidentally, these three artists are persons of
color?
The protests around "Our Lady" reflect
the difficulty of the U.S. proposition that Church and State be separate.
When artists create a secularized image of a religious icon, which has supernatural
meaning to a faith-based community, all hell can break loose. What is often
meant as a positive reflection of contemporary society can be interpreted
as overtly hostile and derogatory by the faithful. In theory, Democratic principles
affirm the right of the individual to express themselves freely. Yet religious
law has its own value system, and the insistence by the Church that its iconography
is entirely its own, often received miraculously and not to be meddled with,
is a valid manifestation of its supernatural beliefs.
Now that the protests have taken an ominous and threatening turn, the discourse over these issues shifts to a hostile, more dangerous terrain. If there is to be any redemption in this struggle, it will come through the widespread exposure of "Our Lady" and Lopez work as a way of not only protecting her, but the first amendment rights of free speech every artist is entitled to in the U.S.