School of Creative Arts : The University of Melbourne

Whats On
Upcoming events This years All years Research Seminars Faculty events University events

Return to list

Research seminar

Presented by:

Georgie Boucher

Title:

Interstitial resistance in the work of Guillermo Gomez-Pena

Date & Time:

14/9/2005 4.30 – 6pm

Venue:

Multi-Function Room, SGS

Description:

Interstitial resistance in the work of Guillermo Gómez-Peña

The unique work of Mexican-American performance artist, Guillermo Gómez-Peña from the early eighties onwards has contributed significantly to an artistic-political engagement with the commodification of ‘multiculturalism’ in both the U.S. art world and political terrain. For over twenty years, Gómez-Peña has dedicated his performance of hybrid, in-between identities to the strategic project of ‘border art’ and ‘cultural transvestism’ in order to address the violence of globalisation, or what he terms, ‘the borderization of the world.’ This paper will trace a chronological trajectory of ‘border politics’ through three of Gómez-Peña’s performances, ‘The End of the Line’ (1986), ‘Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit…’ (1992) and ‘Pocha Nostra’s Museum of Frozen Identity’ (1995 – 2005). From the early site-specific public interventions to current internet-based installations, notions of ‘subversion from within’, ‘reverse ethnography’ and creative expropriation will be analysed as post-colonialist performance strategies.

Whats On