Pedro Vélez
#DrunkDictators
mixed media on paper and posters
Monique Meloche, Chicago [link]
From the retail storefront at Monique Meloche in Chicago, an installation looks out on the city. Posters masquerade as advertisements, depicting women, not quite on display, and certainly not vacuous supermodels. Unretouched, natural, the empowered feminine, confident, diverse and real, they meet the viewers eye on an equal level, casting gaze for gaze, amid a sea of placards. Turbulent signs and slogans, a sea of voices no longer unheard. The critique has moved off the streets and infiltrated the tools of oppression: marketing, brand identity, mocking the authoritarian voice, turning it as a mirror back on itself. Occupy the critics.
~Randall Garrett