MICHAEL VASQUEZ | Rites of Passage | Installation Image | Fredric Snitzer Gallery | 2012
February 17th - March 17th 2012 | Opening Reception February 17th 6 – 9 PM
Inspired by personal experience, Vasquez explores and recreates the danger and allure of a neighborhood street gang through the perspective of a growing boy who lacks a father figure. In search of ideals of masculinity and community, the protagonist experiences his rite of passage, the “transitional phase between childhood and full inclusion into a tribe or social group” (Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage) in this case, his ritualistic initiation into a gang. Vasquezʼs unique interpretation of Gennepʼs three phases of the rite of passage-- separation, transition, and reincorporation--is the connective premise of his collaged installation.
Vasquezʼs new body of work marks an exciting expandsion in medium and execution. In an effort to more directly integrate his photographs—a retrospective of his career as an artist—Michael revisits, resizes, and reassembles his images to fashion a large-scale, panoramic collage that narrates a gangʼs convergence through friendships and the erection of forts within wrecked construction sites, which allude to the idea of broken homes. In order to address the 3-dimensional space of the Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Vasquez will collage the elements into an aggressive relief photo sculpture, the extensive scale of which will confront and unnerve even the most high-end viewer.
Fredric Snitzer Gallery is open from Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. For more information and images regarding this exhibition, please contact 305.448.8976 or info@snitzer.com. Additionally, please visit us at www.snitzer.com.
