#ocma

Morphosis

Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), 2022

CAM:

Since March 2020, California passed COVID mandates, protocols, and regulations to provide health safety to its residents which at times closed art institutions for long periods and then later, gave permission to those institutions to reopen with strict guidelines for establishments and guests, alike. Taking advantage of the modified rules and following our own safety procedures, a trip was taken in November 2020 to Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) Expansion Santa Ana site.

The timing of this opportunity was ideal since I felt safe to venture out of my home for an art activity at OCMA as part of my self-care routine since seeing works in person was my preferred method compared to the virtual & digital programming provided during the mandated stay-at-home orders. Plus visiting the location would allow the experience to be filled with nostalgia of the cultural visits before the time of the pandemic.

In the case of OCMA, their social media campaigns communicated about their exhibitions at the Expansion Site while the permanent location is being constructed a few blocks east. From the OCMA Expand Season 4 roster, we were interested in being active art patrons and providing support during, what would be, our final museum visit under pandemic conditions in the year of 2020.

During the time of our visit, OCMA’s website stated their response to COVID-19 included mask requirements, reduced capacity measures, and a limited number of staff to manage the establishment. For CAM, our prevention measures were updated to include research about said institution and the local health patterns with the goal of minimizing the time spent on the premises.

(OCMA advisory & rules at entrance.)

On a Sunday afternoon in November, the OCMA doors opened to a staff member in a mask behind the front desk plexiglass partition, welcoming visitors on this day. The compliance by staff and the clearly visible list of rules provided me with the reassurance to continue forward. And after waving hello, I was pulled to the lobby for a moment of window shopping by the brightly colored merchandise by the Grant Love Project pop-up shop.

To the right, OCMA proudly displayed in large set typography the list of participating artists and beckoned patrons to walk to the works by Mayrose Cobarrubias Mendoza. This Filipino-American artist used different examples of ceramics, sculptures, and scales to bring Navigating Techniques to represent the relationships between colonization, power, and education. In the piece titled “Territorial Pissing” created in 2019, the museum information card states: “Mendoza reproduces in 1/7 scale the chairs in the Roosevelt Room at the White House and places them around a stack of books acting as the conference table. Though she miniaturizes the seats of authority into toy-like objects, even at this scale the chairs exudes power. The title Territorial Pissings is borrowed from a Nirvana song in which the repetitious refrain ‘gotta find a way, a better way’ reflects the Mendoza’s feeling of frustrated determination to retell Filipino history.”

In the time that I dedicated to analyze the miniature work of chairs conferenced around the book embossed with History: Limited Edition, it connected me the traditional thought of people in power are those who write history to control the present as well as the countless examples of artistic resistance by communities of color, like Cobarrubias Mendoza, who testify about the harsh realities of erasure, discrimination, racism, and the people’s determination towards equality & equity.

As I walked through this first floor that housed Cobarrubias Mendoza’s Navigating Techniques, I focused on two works, “Raft” & “Study II,” that complimented each other and could easily be located in a school classroom helping students find methods to express their creativity. “Raft” built in 2018 out of paper, gouache, cardboard, and spray paint was an enlarged paper boat made with lined sheets with “Study II” on the back wall was an exquisite example of Cobarrubias Mendoza’s chalk usage that was fill with intricacies giving an impasto appearance of ocean waves captivated and transported me to the beautiful Southern California Pacific coastline, riding the tides on “Raft” crafted by the artist.

(“Study II” 2018; chalk, acrylic, wood - Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza.)

Leaving the first floor to the upper level, I paused for a moment on the second floor landing to adjust my facemask and glasses to wipe down the condensation to prevent further spectacle fog up before entering the next space. I ventured directly across and stepped into the artwork of Noé Martínez. Guest curator Ruth Estevez wrote that Martínez’s The Homeland of Images exhibition is an examination of “the power relationships that began with human trafficking during the era of the Spanish Viceory in Mexico in the sixteenth century” which includes depictions of “the physical and psychololigical traumas of enslavement and brings to light the unexpected encounters enslaved people from the Carribbean had with Spanish and indigenous Mexican culture.”

Some pieces within this collection were large sheets of paper with Noé Martínez’s rendering of the horrific realities of colonialism and conquest that occurred in Mexico’s Huastec region as well as recognizing the dehumanization of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. While analyzing the piece entitled “El Intruso” (the Intruder) and how the sculpture was of branding iron reproductions to expose the audience of brutality used on enslaved people and the generational impacts it created.

(Detailed view of “El intruso” by Noé Martínez.)

During my last look of all the work by Noé Martínez, particularly with his text in Huasteca Nahuatl, I could not escape from connecting his work to the current social political climate and the need of creating critical consciousness amongst all for the betterment of humankind.

The next point of interaction at OCMA was the exhibition to the right by Carolyn Castaño titled “Cali es Cali” that was very appealing due to its concepts of family, memory, and culture with small touches of mid-century modernism. Of Colombian heritage, Castaño’s pieces welcomed the audience to see her familia’s journey of immigrating to Los Angeles, California and feel the cultural traditions. Her textile piece “Ruana” made of wool in 2020 encapsulated the orgullo & history of Colombia through heritage and fashion reflected in this mixed marigold hue poncho. Overall, Castaño’s assemblage of paintings, ephemera, contemporary art, and heirlooms provided many points for the audience to connect to the various components of the family structure.

(“Ruana” by Carolyn Castaño for “Cali es Cali” exhibition.)

Across from Castaño’s exhibition and to close the visit, I looked through the glass windows on the second floor to see up on an exterior wall of OCMA was the pink and blue neon light art installation by Alexandra Grant. With her handcrafted piece titled “I was born to love,” Grant encouraged one to consider oneself equal to others which invoked me to think about self love and respect to fellow humans, sentiments that are extremely valuable. 

(View of Alexandra Grant & her “I was born to love” pieces.)

After taking a mental inventory of what I saw, it was time to depart OCMA and it was good timing since more people were being allowed into the establishment in small batches. Before leaving the doors of OCMA, I recalled positive memories from today’s visual stimulation in a physical area before re-entering the real world and continuing to practice social distancing while waiting for things to get better.