Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Cajero, Michael |
Title |
Shoeshine |
Date |
2003 |
Medium |
stoneware |
Culture |
American |
School |
Tucson Artist |
Object ID |
2004.8.1 |
Collection |
Contemporary Latin American Art |
Object Name |
Sculpture |
Credit line |
Gift of Inge Meyer |
Didactic Information |
Tucson artist Michael Cajero creates figurative compositions that reveal the drama and expressiveness of the realities of the human condition. Working in ceramics as well as pâpier maché, Cajero is interested in the 1960s and 1970s Process movement, which stressed the physicality of materials, and Arte Povera, which made use of raw forms and common materials. Cajero's ceramic works show a heightened sense of emotion or pathos due to his expressive manner of working in clay. In Stroke Victim, Cajero expresses the agony and physicality of a distressed body. Confined to a wheelchair, the contorted man turns his head to the side to reveal an expression that appears like rage and defiance about his condition. In Shoeshine, both the customer and the service provider are rendered in rough textures, hues, and form. As if on a throne, the man receiving the shoe shine is made larger than the man (a "shoe shine boy") who bends over like a supplicant to provide his service. The disparity of scale speaks volumes about master/servant dichotomy and the power of money to diminish and demoralize what is often called the "lower class." [[Paired with Stroke Victim 2004.8.2]] (Feb 2017) |