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| Tola art installation is one part warrior and one part beast. |
Last night I took a peek into the unnerving, shadowy passageways of two twisted creative minds: artist José Miguel Tola and puppet-maker Ety Fefer. The exhibit, titled Guerreros, Monstruos, y Bestias (Warriors, Monsters, and Beasts), is a celebrated artistic collaboration that dares to confront us with war, marginality and our own humanity.
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| One of Fefer´s grumildos. |
Fefer´s lifelike plasticine grumildos are adorned with garish war paint, spikes, demon eyes, and hanging tongues, in part inspired by terra cotta warriors and nang yai shadow play; meanwhile, Tola´s weirdly wonderful decoupage-inspired art installations work with motifs like crosses, arrows, rainbows, and outstretched hands. The lucid movements of the lifelike puppets combined with the 3-D textures of the installations produce feelings of exposure and vulnerability for the gawker, as if she or he was one of the displayed pariahs. Better said—walking through the exhibit is akin to walking through a house of mirrors.
While Tola and Fefer are both Lima natives, the two were born 30 years apart—in 1943 and 1973, respectively. In this way, their collaboration represents the meeting of two mindsets—the post-modern and the burlesque. Both are innovators in their respective artistic movements, Tola´s work being housed in Lima´s most notable galleries (MALI and Central Reserve Bank, among others) and Fefer´s grumildos recently completing a 40-city international tour.
The exhibit runs at the Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland in Miraflores until December 4. For anyone living in Lima, I beckon you to spend an hour in the shadow world. You won´t be disappointed.
For more information:
Article (in Spanish)
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