Zeitgeist
Closing Reception: Saturday December 2 from 7 - 12pm, performance @ 9pm

The Mexican Day of the Dead festival, a cross between native and Catholic traditions, is a time to honor loved ones lost and celebrate their memory. In addition to the festivities and other activities that surround this event, people often create in their homes “ofrendas,” altar of sorts of offerings to help welcome the deceased spirit back into their home during this time of remembrance. Ofrendas thus include items for the departed to get cleaned up, foods which that person enjoyed, and pictures, objects, and other mementos from the person’s life. Celebration is the key word in all this. While in many cultures speaking of the dead is solemn and morbid, here it is celebratory, a time for the living to reflect on who the dead person was and why he/she was so special in their lives.

Zeitgeist offers a rich look at the Day of the Dead with an exhibition of ofrendas ranging from more traditional approaches to quite fresh approaches. Vito Valdez’ and Mary Laredo-Herbeck’s offerings are along the lines of what one might most expect from an ofrenda. Laredo-Herbeck devotes hers to her mother, laying out sweet breads, vegetables, and other staples of a healthy kitchen, images of her mother, hand painted traditional skull and hand imagery, and a painting by her mother, formally acknowledging her mother’s influence on Laredo-Herbeck’s own art making. The viewer need not know her mother to connect to this, and think of loved ones that we too would celebrate in similar fashion. Valdez’ piece is a sprawling tribute to a number of artists and friends. Most prominently Valdez recognizes sculptor Luis Jimenez with a series of images of Jimenez’ work, letters between him and Valdez, an article on his tragic death being crushed by a large horse sculpture he was working on. Valdez represents this incident by placing at the center of all the various items in the ofrenda a merry-go-round horse suspended above a sculpted male figure, who holds his arms up as if to hold it back. Valdez’ installation becomes truly educational allowing viewers to learn about the lives of these people and their importance to Valdez and beyond. It’s quite dense with information, curiosities, and the complexities of life that make these people real.

Maurice Greenia, Jr.’s ofrenda is to “Katrina” and it would seem more generally to those victims of mass tragedies in this country. It has the look of the traditional ofrenda, but this quite directly addresses the political making connections between events, objects, all with Greenia’s surreal sensibility. Monte’s piece is less ofrenda and more installation – a scroll rolling down the wall and along the floor with inked bare footprints imprinted upon it, a stated tribute to 9/11 victims.

Terry Burton’s “The Artist Taking Residence,” is an artist’s studio in miniature – filled with spray cans, beer cans, paint supplies, elements of collage, painted bits. On its own, it offers a fair amount to explore as an installation, almost 3-D painting composition. While this show is strengthened by the diversity of offerings, this one feels out of place with the consistent tone and context set by the other works. Dennis Jones’ “Ofrenda para el Artista” hardly resembles the typical ofrenda, yet it is such an outpouring of energy, a celebration of creativity – it’s quite a treat. The piece is inhabited by sculpted figures, Charlie Brown-ish in form, with wide grins and no other features on their rounded, smooth heads and bodies. These playful, shiny happy people, are covered in splatters of paint, behind them are painted portraits of them, monotone in primary colors, Warhol-esque in their repetitiveness. Balloons and confetti litter the ground around them, complementing the celebratory atmosphere, and there’re also a number of towers that inhabit the landscape. A final painting depicts two solitary similarly proportioned figures with facial features and party hats, but their mood is less celebratory. It’s quite involved and impressive in scope, and one might find some similarity between Jones’ commentary on the human condition and Jon Pylypchuk’s “Shanty Town” currently showing at MoCAD.

There’s a bit more to see, Karl Schneider’s winged female figure drawn from screws and other metal parts suspended in glass. It’s offered to loved lost – less about physical death, and more emotional. Nestled between Valdez and Laredo-Herbeck, Matt Hanna offers up a tribute to Colonel Sanders (yes, that Colonel Sanders), both the iconic larger than life image, and the real man. It’s quite fitting subject matter for Hanna, no stranger to mythic characters with his Paul Bunyan themed works. To say the least, images of the colonel are a bit surreal, but with a mix of paintings, a statue, flowers, candles, and a bucket of KFC, it’s quite a beautiful homage.

There’ also a moving tribute to infants and children by the kids of Casa Maria Family Services, as aided by gallery director Jim Puntigam.
Finally there’s one virtual piece, an homage to violence against women by female artists and writers put together by Mark(s) Zine creator Deb King. It’s on a monitor within the gallery, and you can check it out online here: http://www.gender-f.com/.

Zeitgeist tore out some walls to really connect their regular art space with the theater space, and it really works to allow this work to be given its proper space. In addition to their visual works, the Space Band will be offering a living ofrenda to past musicians at the closing reception (among other festivities said to include giant puppets) at their closing reception Saturday, December 2. This was such a joy for them to put on, curator Diana Alva says it is to be an annual event. For those uninitiated to the Day of the Dead and ofrendas, there is something quite healthy about celebrating the departed, rather than mourning, and Zeitgeist captures that spirit quite well. There’s lots to see and enjoy, so check out this one. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com