Damian Ortega in "Mexico City"

Damian Ortega is a very fascinating Mexican artist who uses everyday life materials in his art, for example, Volkswagen Beetle cars, Day of the Dead posters and locally sourced corn tortillas (which I found to be hilarious). His work explores specific economic, aesthetic and cultural situations and, in particular, how regional culture affects commodity consumption. Damian always was fond of art but by watching his brother, who liked to do a lot of experiments and take apart kitchen appliances to see how they work, he then branched out his ideas to taking common materials apart. For example, on the bottom right corner is a picture of "Cosmic Thing," a beetle car was used for this specific type of art because for one, he had his own, secondly it was part of his own family, and thirdly because it was the most popular car in Mexico City. This exploded installation gave this vibe that every piece, every part of the beetle car had it's own life and it's own energy. Something that I admire about Damian is that he appreciates all the objects around him, he finds history behind them. His work is a form of appropriation, meaning it is a political statement because it gives him the chance to transform and re-contextualize everyday object that are taken for granted. His beautiful piece of art on the bottom left called "Cosmogonia Domestica," which translates to Domestic Cosmogony, is what Damian explains it to be a "schizophrenic carousel...more like a homemade solar system." He used his own chairs, his own table, kitchen utensils and he just planned to do this artwork for the public, in public, without thinking about how the weather outside would affect his work. Eventually after a few days after it was publicized, there were conflicts, but he finds it exciting to take risks and to him the most important thing is failure. The other piece of art that connects with his culture is the "Tortilla Construction Module" (upper right). The tortilla was a common edible in Mexico and he decided instead of going with oil painting or regular painting he would use this common edible and represent it in a different and hilarious form. In "Controller of the Universe" (upper left), Damian was moved by his love of tools and how they could be transformed and modified. He collected different amazing tools when he went to the flea market every Sunday in Berlin, and the purpose of collecting all of these tools was to have the audience feel and see the many possibilities made through tools alone; on how they transform many thing in the world. Damian Ortega's brought this feeling of "home" to me, even though he revolved most of his work around his culture, I still got the feeling that the everyday object he worked with also related with my life.