NO SOY CHINO

Mexico City, January 16 – February 20, 1998

Curated by Rubén Gallo

Artists: Eduardo Abaroa, Rodrigo Aldana, Yishai Jusidman, Edgar Orlaineta Zuñiga, Daniela Rossell, Pablo Vargas Lugo

In recent years, orientalism – a marked interest in the symbols and motifs of oriental cultures – has grown to be an important trend in the work of Mexico City’s younger artists. No Soy Chino brings together six artists whose work defines this orientalist tendency in Mexico: objects decorated with tantric drawings by Eduardo Abaroa; parodies of the grand masters of classic Chinese painting by Rodrigo Aldana; objects by Edgar Orlaineta Zuñiga printed with the figures from Hello Kitty; and drawings and sculptures with the recurring motifs of a rising sun and a map of Japan by Pablo Vargas Lugo. Some of the artists also designed specific work for the Art&Idea gallery space, as well as the Chinese café next door to the gallery. No Soy Chino is neither a show of power, nor a projection of fantasies, nor an imaginary colonization. The orientalism of the pieces is a complex device to be analyzed, and which invites the visitors to draw their own conclusions regarding the meaning of “Orient” in the Mexican imagination.