At Greater Reston Arts Center in late April, the face of a vibrant Latina woman beckons to visitors from every direction. The series is called Delights from South America, and the woman is advertising fruit in posters on the walls. A video projection simultaneously shows four images of her, holding up pineapples, bananas, papayas and tangerines with a salesperson’s smile. The images on the posters are juxtaposed with written phrases like “I never saw the dead,” and “We lost everything,” pieces of testimonies collected by Colombian journalist Alfredo Molano. But the harsh reality of the words doesn’t interfere with the gaiety of the female character, who doesn’t just adorn the walls but prances around the gallery selling actual fruit to visitors—pineapples are $3.49 each. Her business card is a refrigerator magnet with a photo on the front, a close-up of piercingly pink high-heeled boots, presumably modeled and shot by herself.* This is Carolina Mayorga, once again playing the dual role of artist and art.
“I’ve always been interested in interacting with people,” says Mayorga, who in previous works has played characters such as Super-Tina, a superhero who chases illegal immigrants; and the Miraculous Artist, a spiritual figure whose solution to all of life’s ailments is a set of cards featuring her likeness for the low, low price of $3.99. “Definitely being there and performing helps for selling [the work on the walls], but actually I found that out after the fact.”
Born in Colombia, Mayorga came to the US to study sculpture at the University of Kansas, and moved to Washington after earning her MFA in the late ‘90s. “The scene was a little different,” she says. “It was more commercial galleries. It was a little hard for me to find a venue that would be interested in things like performance art and video … Nowadays it’s much more open. There are more people interested in alternative kinds of art.”
In addition to performance, video, and photography, Mayorga’s work frequently incorporates painting, drawing, and computer graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator. Favorite themes of hers include war, the juxtaposition of her native and adopted cultures, and poking fun at the Catholic faith in which she was raised. “I get influenced by weird things, like for example going to H&M.” She describes seeing a four-screen video advertisement in a store in New York, giving her the idea for the video in Delights from South America. The idea for the character she plays in the series came from the label on a pineapple she saw in a supermarket. “I used to be more influenced by artists before. Now it’s more just things that I see around.”
After saying she is in a state of “What’s next?” she immediately describes plans for a new series in some detail. Inspired by paintings of the Virgin Mary she saw in Italy, and expanding on her stint as the Miraculous Artist, she plans on a series of photographs of herself as Mary. Visitors to the exhibition’s opening would undoubtedly be treated to an appearance by the Blessed Virgin herself.
Mayorga notes the struggle to establish her identity in the local arts scene, saying she was often pigeonholed as a Latino artist. “I think I finally broke away from that, and I feel that even though my work is all very related to my background, I’m a D.C. artist … I’m part of the city now.” Her work has been shown in local galleries such as Curator’s Office, Civilian Art Projects, Transformer and Washington Project for the Arts. Her most recent work, Latin/American Diet, a video collaboration with Kristina Bilonick, is on view as part of Greater Reston Arts Center’s BITE exhibition until July 29.
*The photo is a still from her video piece Love Me.
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