Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya | My Uncle's Straw Hats Hanging By the Shed
on view from April 26, 2021 in the Viewing Room
"My Uncle's Straw Hats Hanging By the Shed" Installation View
"A carapace, and the blue blood that coagulates around it as they land and look for new environments (form I)," 2021, Straw hat sombreros, two Gemsbok horn tips, black sweatpants, rabbit fur pelt, black zip ties, god knows what black plastic fragments found on the day I went the outskirts of the town Horizon to look for a house she was interested in buying, pigmented dragon skin silicone, 19.5 x 10 x 7 inches
"A carapace, and the blue blood that coagulates around it as they land and look for new environments (form III)," 2021, Straw hat sombrero, lil straw hat sombrero, five Gemsbok horn tips, black sweatpants, rabbit fur pelt, found bun clip, bone-white detritus of the Rio Grande River, zip tie, horns found on a Texas rest area, pigmented dragon skin silicone, 19 x 10 x 6 inches
"A carapace, and the blue blood that coagulates around it as they land and look for new environments (form IV)," 2021, Straw hat sombrero, three Gemsbok horn tips, black sweatpants, rabbit fur pelt, zip tie, pigmented dragon skin silicone, 19 1/2 x 9 x 6 1/2 inches
"A carapace, and the blue blood that coagulates around it as they land and look for new environments (form II)," 2021, Straw hat sombrero, three Gemsbok horn tips, black sweatpants, rabbit fur pelt, zip ties, circuit board found on the bottom of the Franklin mountains, pigmented dragon skin silicone, 15 x 9.5 x 7 inches
Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya | My Uncle's Straw Hats Hanging By the Shed
on view from April 26, 2021 in the Viewing Room
A carapace is the shell that protects one from external dangers, whether they’re real predators or ones made in the imagination. In this new series, A carapace, and the blue blood that coagulates around it as they land and look for new environments, Montoya contorts discarded desert debris into four neutral toned creatures who hatched from Montoya’s large scale piece, Tochtli travels an omnibus at night down the Chihuahuan Desert to grandmother's house, to see Saint Seiya dubbed in Spanish (2020). Here, the carapace is a living shell, the bizarre biomimicry of horseshoe crabs.
These corporeal carapaces are constructed of straw sombreros, twisted silicone poured over old sweatpants and forgotten animal furs, all byproducts of overconsumption. This unique combination of materiality mimics the soft bodies that lie beneath the animal’s hard shell. Each form has at least two Gemsbok horns that the lifeforms use as antennas to communicate and relay information back to mother, Tochtli.
These hatchlings are small creatures exploring atmospheric habitats; though in this search, the air and land may be virulent and uninhabitable. These fledglings are protected by a cristiline blood membrane that helps them navigate new worlds or terrains that are corrosive in nature. If faced with danger, the creatures use their blood coating to neutralize poisonous substances. These strange yet friendly creatures float through imaginary worlds in hopes of finding a more suitable home, though their carapace protects them just fine.
Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya (b. 1989, Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico) graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media in 2020. He has exhibited with Company Gallery, New York, NY; Residency Art Gallery, Inglewood, CA; and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA. In September 2020, Montoya debuted his first solo show at Sargent’s Daughters, which was reviewed by The New York Times. Montoya is represented by Sargent's Daughters.