Javier Sanchez, Venado Oro, 2020, video

The misrepresentation and constructed stereotypes by Hollywood blockbusters often ignore the historical origins of the characters on which it capitalizes. These characters, although iconic in the minds of moviegoers, result in idealizations that are part fact and part fiction. They are the idealizations that sometimes become the basis from which the viewer judges and misrepresents typical stereotypes in our cultural context.
By reenacting the Deer Dance ritual from the northern part of Mexico as a mock-up of reality, I create images of self-identification that simultaneously represent both the insider and the outsider, each one idealizing the other in the search for an identity that has been lost by cultural colonization.

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Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Javier Sanchez is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Las Vegas NV. He studied Archeology in Mexico City at Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (ENAH) before moving to the United States and he graduated with degrees in Studio Art from UNLV University of Nevada Las Vegas (BFA, 2012) and SUNY University at Buffalo New York (MFA, 2017). His artwork has been exhibited local and nationally and it has been featured in the art magazines Art Practical, from the Bay Area, and Hyperallergic, from Brooklyn NY. 

Sanchez’s explorations seek to decolonize aesthetics in relation to the moving image to transform and alter cultural identity depending on culture and location. His artwork on sculptures, and video installations presents the viewer with characters and mystical entities shaped and distorted by new media with pre-scripted notions that are often perpetuated by films and television. Through the clever manipulation of cultural stereotypes, these characters sometimes played by the artist himself begin to disrupt, contort, and subvert our understanding of the indigenous stock characters often found within cinema. In Sanchez's work, the viewer is forced into a precarious negotiation between perceptions shaped by mass media and the inherent authenticity of the artist. 

https://sanchezjv.wixsite.com/website