Artist Takeover 5/9: Nao Bustamante

Fresh off being named as a Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts 2020 Artist Project Grantee (along with REDCAT), Nao Bustamante took over our social media channels on Saturday, May 9 to share what she’s been working on during quarantine before hosting a very special Bogota Flea Market Dance Party.

 

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Fresh off being named as a @mike_kelley_foundation 2020 Artist Project Grantee (along with REDCAT), @naobustamante will be taking over our social media channels TOMORROW! Make sure to follow us as she shares what she’s working on and more! And join for a very special Bogota Flea Market Dance Party @naobustamante at 6pm! #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 8, 2020 at 2:51pm PDT

 

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Clad in an Edwardian combat dress made of Kevlar®, how would a woman fighting in the Mexican Revolution stand up to the weaponry of 1910? @naobustamante ‘s “Personal Protection” takes a quiet approach to a very difficult subject. As women soldiers struggle on behalf of their right to fight alongside men, they redefine military culture. (Nowhere is this more painfully visible than in the military’s efforts to address pervasive sexual harassment in its culture.) Bustamante’s project takes up the question of how gender and sexuality matter in military conflict and in military culture by stepping back to consider what a woman does when she puts her gendered body on the front line, in the most literal of terms. In this video, we see the test footage for the first fighting costume in the series, “Tierra y Libertad.” #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 10:27am PDT

 

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“Reveal” is part of @naobustamante ‘s filmformance “Silver & Gold,” that evokes the muse of legendary filmmaker Jack Smith and his tribute to 1940s Dominican movie starlet Maria Montez in a magical and joyfully twisted exploration of race, glamour, sexuality, and the silver screen. This excerpt plays after Maria drinks poison and has a prolonged and ridiculous death scene. It functions as a sort of dead actress memorial reel. This film is also meant to be performed with live sound. #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 12:49pm PDT

 

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“Tierra y Libertad” - Kevlar® 2945, 2010, protective Kevlar, wearable fighting costume, 4ʼ x 3ʼ x 2ʼ, variable dimensions @naobustamante #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand”

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 1:29pm PDT

 

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“Silver & Gold,” 2009, video stills from filmformance of the same name @naobustamante #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 2:04pm PDT

 

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“Earth People 2507” is a video project that is part Public Service Announcement and part time capsule. It is a message in a bottle to be screened in 500 years. @naobustamante is a cosmovideographer shot into space and time. #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 2:53pm PDT

 

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Live/video reenactment of photograph, “Deathbed,” 2009, wood, photograph, marker, costume, video projection, variable dimensions // (Detail) Live/video reenactment of photograph, “Deathbed,” 2009, wood, photograph, marker, costume, video projection, variable dimensions // “Deathbed,” 2009, photograph, 20” x 30” @naobustamante #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 3:48pm PDT

 

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The Russian filmmaker Sergei Eistenstein (1898-1948) defined revolutionary cinema with works like “Battleship Potemkin” (1925) and “October” (1928). Eisenstein belonged to a generation of international artists drawn to the utopian potential of post-revolutionary Mexico. In the early 1930s, he attempted to make a film that would not just represent Mexico: it would, in his vision, be Mexico. This project was aborted when his American backers withdrew their support amidst a cloud of rumors (e.g. the film was shut down because it was over budget and/or its vision was distinctly homoerotic). This work (which has no official title, but is often referred to as “Que Viva Mexico!”) remains, perhaps, the most famous unfinished film in cinema history. Eisenstein’s script was broken into chapters: the only sequence that was not filmed is titled “Soldadera” and centers on the Mexican Revolution. The soldadera, in his words, “seems to physically personify the image of a single, nationally unite Mexico.” @naobustamante has “dipped a ladle into Eisenstein’s script” to explore the unfinished project of the revolution. Soldadera’s backgrounds are drawn from digital scans of photographs housed in Special Collections and University Archives at Tomás Rivera Library at the University of California, Riverside. #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 5:01pm PDT

 

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“Neapolitan is a fully crocheted video installation. The video shows me watching the end of a movie over and over, rewinding, and crying each time, an emotional vibrator of sorts. When the viewer engages, s/he sits on the bench and puts on the elaborately crocheted headphones to listen, being tethered to the work and completing the loop. There is a tension between the emotionally gloomy video and the brightly executed install. The installation has a grandma on steroids vibe; feminist fiber art taken to an extreme.” - @naobustamante // “Neapolitan,” 2008, video, monitor, crochet cover and taxidermy, variable dimensions #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 5:16pm PDT

 

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“Find Yourself Through Me,” ongoing project – no end date, digital photo collage, amateur hypnosis performance for one person and many voyeurs, growing digital portrait of “me,” 24” x 8” @naobustamante #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 5:26pm PDT

 

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It’s Saturday night! Time to put on your dancing shoes and get ready for a Bogota Flea Market Dance Party! Thank you to @naobustamante for sharing her work with us today. Now head over to her page as she goes live at 6pm! #calartsredcat #REDCATondemand

A post shared by REDCAT (@calartsredcat) on May 9, 2020 at 5:45pm PDT