San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Chiapas, México
PH Joel (born in Francisco Villa, Ocosingo in 1992) presents his art in this exhibition dedicated to the intersection of the ancestral and the futuristic. Joel is as ingenious as he is skilled in his creative production. We admire the confident hand of a young master draftsman recreating images that stem from a passionate investigation into the visual-cosmogonic culture of the Classic Maya.
After completing his university studies (in anthropology at UNACH), PH Joel returned to his passion for art and connected with other artists associated with the MUY project to begin painting. He later moved to Tijuana to try his luck as an artist in the world of borderland postmodernism. After achieving notable success, he felt magnetically drawn back to his native Chiapas, returning with the intention of creating art in and for his village—and for Maya communities more broadly—at this flourishing moment of contemporary art.
His concept is a holistic one. He paints on ceramic pieces that he crafts himself. Once again, we see censers, pots, and various fantastical forms—freely and admiringly appropriating artifacts from over a thousand years ago, subtly reworked to express his identity as a contemporary Maya artist.
“A cyborg is a being made of organic matter and technological (cybernetic) devices whose purpose is to enhance the organic part,” Joel explains. He continues: “The title leads me to reflect on how I’m part of the globalized world, and we shouldn’t reject this part of ourselves. I don’t separate things, nor do I buy into the idea of purity in indigeneity. It’s strange to sell a concept of indigeneity without technology.”
Of Gods and Cyborgs: It’s an encounter between mirrors. Gods create nature; we create the images—of gods and of ourselves. And we continue to recreate ourselves through technology and its socialization, within a contemporary traditionalism. Joel plays with concepts by weaving between cultures. Hybridization defines our time. Without a doubt, Maya culture is the foundation of his (re)creation.
His art expresses protest, rebellion, reclamation, and the freedom to create post-subaltern contemporary identities. These works invite contemplation—prepare for a moment of curious confusion, find the joke and the ecological, decolonial, wonderfully seriocomic meaning.
Artworks
The charm of virtual life
Clay censer with pigment
52.5 x 35 x 13 cm
2019
“Virtual life distracts our gaze toward what is beautiful, preventing us from being critical of the problems we face in real life. We observe social, ecological, economic, and political issues from a distance. We feel detached from them.”
Portrait of civilized man
Clay censer with pigments
45.5 x 33 x 17.5 cm
2019
“Man has created money and misery, politics and war, religion and sin, his pleasures—and also his destruction.”
Contemporary glyphs
Local clay with slip and paint
22.2 x 12.4 cm
2019
“On this cup, I record the everyday symbols we currently know and use. I represent reinterpretations of pre-Columbian ideas. In the past, cups were used to depict their ways of life and the symbols they used to communicate. In the current stage of human history, if there is something that characterizes our language, it’s emojis—symbols that, due to globalization, are now used across all languages. Everyone has a cellphone nowadays, and with it, they know how to express themselves through those symbols.”
Graffiti
Local clay with slip and pigments
10.5 x 14.3 x 8 cm
2019
“It is the spirits of our ancestors who accompany us on the first of November. We set out food for them, give them honey, extend our hands, and pray, saying to our ancestors: You are now beneath the cross; may your spirit rest and may you visit us in these moments; receive the little we have. We end by saying: We will see you next year; be the intermediary for us; we will be waiting for you next year.”
Ritual cup
Local clay with slip, bas-relief, and paint
16.4 x 8.5 cm
2018
“In the Highlands of Chiapas, Coca-Cola is important for rituals. For a long time, I didn’t understand why. But one of the characteristics of this drink is that it contains carbonation, and that’s what made it special, because it causes burping, meaning expelling air through the mouth. For many people, expelling those gases means releasing certain discomforts, expelling illnesses through the air; therefore, Coca-Cola purifies the being. Of course, marketing, translated into indigenous languages, has filled the villages with the idea that city products are better than what is found in the countryside. Coffee, pozol, atoles, infusions—drinks that enriched the local gastronomy—are being replaced by the bubbling sweetness of Coca-Cola, and with that, the increase in the diabetes epidemic.”
Time devouring monster
Clay with slip and pigments
16.5 x 9.4 x 1.4 cm
2019
“We use electronic devices every day, but among the youth population, we have a special connection with cellphones. We invest so much time in them that we forget the warmth of human relationships. There is an immense amount of junk information on social media, as well as many distractions. It limits our time in the real world because we have to tend to that second virtual life we’ve built, often based on appearances.”
Portrait of peasant
Local clay with slip and pigments
1.5 x 24.3 cm
2019
“Contemporary methods are different for caring for the crops from which farmers obtain their food and on which they depend economically. I propose that this plate be used only for organic products.”
Cyborg Portrait
Local clay with slip and paint
16 x 22 x 9.5 cm
2019
“Imagine entertaining yourself without your cellphone.
Imagine a life without social media and other apps.
Imagine how it would be to stay in touch with the people you care about.
Imagine how to take photos and videos.
“Etymologically, a Cyborg is a being or creature made of organic matter and technological (cybernetic) devices whose goal is to enhance the organic part. I use this word because, although it is associated with science fiction, I cannot find a word that better describes and represents us. We depend so much on machines, whether to travel, cook our food, entertain ourselves, etc., that we cannot conceive of a world without them, because they have become part of our everyday life. Our perspective of perceiving reality is closely tied to them. But with all this technological reach, are we becoming better humans?”
Circuits
Clay
13.6 x 8.2 cm
2020
“In this piece, I simply capture the representation of how humans have learned to control certain forces of nature for our benefit.”
