Art Gallery

Petty and Personal

REVIEWED BY CHARLES LONBERGER

The video installation recently on display at the Hammer Museum in Westwood, by Patricia Esquivas, was an example of didactic confusion.

The perspective is that of an expatriate artist, criticizing cultures foreign to her native Venezuela through books and architecture, etc.

There are two fundamental flaws with this exhibit: the first is that she is so involved with the cultures she criticizes, that her gripes are trivial and petty. But the greater problem is that by voicing her complaints simultaneously, she unleashes viewing pandemonium.

The chaos that results from such a contextually insignificant barrage of information is not worth the struggle we must endure, only to be rewarded by drivel. 

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