Sin Fronteras/Stateless
Part 4 Scene 5 (still from a nonexistent film)
José Garza
February 2022 – April 2022
Sin Fronteras/Stateless Part 4 Scene 5 (still from a nonexistent film) is part of a series of images with accompanying subtitles in both Spanish and English. It is intended as an open ended project alluding to a singular and complete film loosely based on the subjects of mass immigration, hybrid identity, and time travel. The scale is meant to reference the cinema screen and specifically the communal act of watching a film in a theater. Where strangers sit in the dark, staring at an empty screen, and await something to appear out
of nothing.
The text/image is inspired from written works such as The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges; Time Travel: A History by James Gleick; The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli and from cinematic nonlinear narratives, composite filmmaking, and hyperlink cinema. These sources not only relate to time and duration but also the nature and reason for perception and existence which are framed by the artist within the Latinx experience in America.
About
José Guadalupe Garza was born along the Mexico/US border. He’s a St. Louis-based artist working in traditional and new media who draws inspiration from wide ranging cultural and subcultural sources. These include cinema, popular music, literature, metaphysics, and Rasquachismo. Garza has incorporated and subverted the tropes of DIY and lo-fi aesthetics in his work. The rapid and sometimes low-budget quality of their production is evident across his multimedia practice. Other projects have taken the form of curated exhibitions and screenings, ad hoc libraries, performances, and collaborations. Garza’s use of appropriated images, ready-mades, found footage and sound are exercises centered in nostalgia used to unravel and rethink the American mythos.
Currently, he’s the Museum Academic Programs Coordinator at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, is a part-time faculty member in Photography at Saint Louis University, and serves on the boards of the Tarble Arts Center and Latinx Arts Network. Before deciding on a full time career in visual art and education, Garza served in the US Navy for eight years.