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Past Exhibit | January 2 - February 29, 2008
War of the Walls
According to A-Infos, on May 22, 2006 a conflict broke out in Oaxaca, Mexico as a teachers strike for
better wages and a higher budget to provide impoverished school
children with uniforms, breakfasts, and basic school supplies. After
refusing to negotiate with the teachers union, Gov. Ulises Ruiz sent
the state police into Oaxaca City’s central plaza on June 14 to
remove the teachers´ protest camp with tear gas and police batons.
Aaron Tukey (C) 2007
American Photographer Aaron Tukey says: “When I first started following the uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico, I must admit that I was dismayed to hear that artist-activists were tagging buildings with revolutionary graffiti, including some centuries-old colonial gems like the church of Santo Domingo. In the “Officialist” local press, these activists were invariably labeled as "vandals" - despite my general sympathies for the social movement in Oaxaca, I was initially inclined to agree with that description.
But when I traveled to the region in the spring of 2007 - for the first time in many years - I found myself rethinking the simplistic picture I had been handed of the architectural patrimony of Oaxaca falling victim to rampaging anarchists. I found that the city of Oaxaca had indeed been substantially vandalized since I visited last - but the most lasting and damaging vandalism was inflicted at the hands of the State, with support from local business elites. In the war over Oaxaca's walls, I began to see reflections of broader questions over the incremental enclosure of public space, and the role of art in social change."
When I saw Aaron's collection of photographs, documenting the graffiti of revolt in Oaxaca I was fascinated at multiple levels. The first level was the intensity of the graffitis themselves. The second level was Aaron's choice and skill to document the stories, in a way to make each wall piece his own artwork. And all this took me to another level where I was reminded of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, three famous Mexican muralists who in the 1920's started to document home grown revolutions on the walls of Mexico for all to see.
This exhibit is beyond photographs, colors and political preferences. This exhibit is about expressions on the walls, starting on the streets of Oaxaca by an uprising city, to Aaron Tukey's stories about these events on the walls of a gallery in Boston.
Naveed Nour, Curator - Medallion Gallery | Dec. 17th, 2007
Sheep - Aaron Tukey (C) 2007
About Aaron Tukey
Aaron Tukey has long had an affinity for Spanish culture, which he first discovered as a high school student living in Spain. He continued this interest while completing a master's degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona. As an adult, he has lived in Colombia and in Mexico. His photographs of rural life in Colombia have appeared in Italy's La Repubblica (May 2007).
Tukey currently telecommutes as a systems analyst for a hospital in San Francisco. He moved to Worcester this summer with his wife, Liza Grandia, a faculty member in International Development and Social Change in IDCE. For additional information visit www.nimla.com.
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