ARCHIVE: LIVABLE FUTURE IN RECALL

Livable Futures Community Archive Site Taken in October 2017

Q&A

LF: What makes more livable futures for you?

LROD: For me, a pursuit to re-imagine justice, resiliency, and love against the current oppressive or destructive ways of living would be a start in making the future livable. I believe it is crucial to create a realm of care, ethics, and compassion to work towards balance in our overly consumptive world. These liberal acts help to reconstruct/heal dilapidated structures in our social, economic, and industrial ways of living but prioritize these acts within the environmental sphere. As an artist, I think creating performative/experiential environments in a community of co-creation kickstarts the imagination needed to unlock the potential of our future.

• A livable future responds to crisis, injustice, and inequality.

• A livable future is continuously adapting.

• A livable future makes and holds space for all.

• A livable future is a possibility manifested through imagination.

• A livable future redefines freedom.

• A livable future is not always polite.

• A livable future is transparent.

• A livable future thrives in equity.

• A livable future redefines love and care.

LF: What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?

LROD:

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017), Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (2019) by adrienne maree brown

Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology by Jennifer A. González

Black Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora (2009) edited by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelley

Dawn (2012) by Octavia E. Butler

On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (Ahmanson-Murphy Fine Arts Imprint) by Ronald Rael

LF: What practices are sustaining you?

LROD:

Sustaining my practice is daydreaming, hyper-creativity in co-creative environments, performance as protest, and ritualized self-care.

• Sun’s kiss on my skin

• The desert

• Aesthetics in environmental design

• Home

• Community

• Daily improvisation

• Mi Familia

• Napping

• Sustento

• Artmaking in all its capacities

• Deep conversations

• Immersing into books/movies/shows

• Truth

• The moment when I am told something is impossible

©LROD

MASK MAKING

I usually get asked this question a lot: Why the masks?

Well, I started wearing the masks back in early 2014, I didn’t have the context as to the why but I had the feelings. Reading many great Chicano/a scholarships has enhanced my understanding of the masking culture that is alive and well today in Mexico and the Borderlands. This vein of studies also operates as a creative and productive outlet for my work as an artist. More so many of my abilities are navigating a world not meant for me usually–I feel.

Back in 2014, I was drawn to omitting my identity and obscuring the image of the body onstage. The mask work has added a layer of surrealism that I am researching from a feminist perspective and admire works from Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and Dorthea Tanning. Masks in these studies stem from Luchador culture which came out of the Tejas Borderlands and is now a pop-culture Mexican staple, however, the use of masks is relevant in Dia De Los Muertos and other traditions.

Starting this semester with a Costume Practicum with Lindsay Simon for 6 hours a week was such an outlet for creativity and production, and gave me time to understand the process of making masks.

To get started, I create a storyboard and gather materials. I created an inspiration board (Pinterest) to gather ideas for the Lucha Libre, Animal designs, and LROD masks I was interested in producing. Since I had only made these masks by hand I was ready to produce a pattern so that I could easily make more on a sewing machine rather than hand-stitch. The goal was to experiment with many fabrics and styles to gain experience making the masks and practicing my sewing machine abilities. For the animal heads, what was the next level of design besides making, shaping, and coloring them?

Here are some previous masks I have made for my work:

Innominate Performance – LROD + Artists Dance Artists: Sierra Hendrix, Levi Ryan, Kince De Vera, Scotty Flores, Hannah Cavallaro, Becca Blackwell, Molly Levy Lighting: Meg Fox Photo: Devin Munoz

BORDERLANDS

LOS MUERTOS

RUPTURE

PUEBLA

PUEBLA

PUEBLA

PUEBLA

STAG FOR DAYS

BUNNY IN BLOOM

THE REVOLT

 Until next time – LROD

©LROD

Home Alter: Living Forward

Date: November 2, 2017

Home Alter: Dedicated to mi abuela Martinez y mi Tio Rubio
Design: LROD + Becky Rubio
Lighting: Meg Fox
Photo: Devin Marie Munoz

What does it mean to remember someone when they have passed on? To hold onto the memories to keep them alive means so much to those who celebrate Dia de Los Muertos and invest in a joyous death culture. My home alter has developed from my desire to connect with my loved ones. Home alters are still huge focal points of homes in southern Mexico. These spaces are the heartbeat of the home usually consuming up to half or sometimes a full room. The alters have different components to help the loved ones make their way back to the living on special occasions such as marigolds, fire, food, and candles. Symbolic meanings and religious meanings entangle in what is pagan and what is holy. Some might find this joining of spiritual and corporal morbid. However, to grieve one must celebrate the life lost by having a moment each year to share the stories of loved ones with younger generations is important and keeps the ancestry intact.

I have been fascinated with death since I was a young child. Mostly because my Tia would take me to the desert to these communal gatherings. We would meditate for 3 hours and eat for another three hours in communal gatherings. Beautiful time, she is a reiki, yogi, and layer of hands. However, I experienced my first laying of hands on someone who had passed and I have never looked back. My investment in learning about the funeral industry grew, and learning other death practices for different cultures around the world exploded. There are so many ways one can choose to be buried these days. Quite beautiful. However, I always return to the sitting with death, maybe because I have been around so much of it, grief, loss, and mourning. I understand. Either way, these moments of recalling, celebrating, returning, and honoring–cultivate a deep stillness inside my body.

The work here makes visible the deep connection and importance to those we have lost. My small daily moments with loved ones whom I can no longer visit or call helps me move life forward. I am my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and so on. I am my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and so on. Branches of love, care, and family are the ones I desire most as my lineage expands and decays.

©LROD