Rurru Mipanochia

BIO

Mexican Cyborg Visual Artist graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, at Facultad de Artes y Diseño. U.N.A.M. 2008-2012. (Indeed she was born in the deep land of Mictlán . Near to Niburi and having as a roomates Zotz and Xólotl who tougth her about very interesting shit, literally shit (coz’ shit is soil fertilizer, and energy needs it to keep working) , cosmos and ancient powerful knowledge which they told her is very important to bring back to this time, because the colonizers imposed their shit as unique and only universal knowledge, not respecting others truths). 2019 – Studied a Master’s degree tittled : “Investigación y Creación en Arte” at Universidad del País Vasco, UPV/EUH, Spain. In 2015-2016 She received Jóvenes Creadores Grant in the Graphic Category by Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, FONCA. In 2017 She got an Artist Residency collaborating with Centro Cultural Huarte de Arte Contemporáneo, Navarra, Spain. Her work has been exhibited in national and international Institutions with individual and group exhibitions at: LACE Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2020), Emma Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Tx (2020), National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago (2020), Schwules Museum, Berlin (2018-2019), Art Space Mexico Gallery (2017. 2018, 2019), Pablo Goebel Fine Arts Gallery, Mexico City (2018), Foto Museo Cuatro Caminos, Mexico City (2018), Universidad Miguel Hernández, Valencia (2018), Swinton and Grant Gallery, Madrid (2016, 2017, 2018), Galería de la Raza , San Francisco (2017), Centro Cultural de México Contemporáneo (2015), Madre Galería, Buenos Aires (2014), KeyStone Art Space, Los Ángeles (2017), among others. Her work also has been published in different press, media and magazines like: Revista Yorokobu, Revista Chilango, Cultura Colectiva, PAC Plataforma de Arte Contemporáneo, VISIONmagChina, Revista POUSTA. During her career, Rurru has been invited to give several Talks in different institutions like Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia,ENAH, Mexico city; Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico city; Swinton and Grant Gallery, Madrid , Spain. Since 2019, Rurru’s work was part of the Casa de Subastas MORTON, Mexico City. This cyborg has tried hard to make her spirit spit her ancestors word out.

STATEMENT

The main purpose of this project is to achieve that the audience could recognize itself in the face, body and sexuality of what is mostly called “the other”. This bond is to be created through my work, which consists mainly in a graphic and personal reinterpretation of Mexican pre-Columbian myths about sexuality. For this reason, my work will we focused towards a public whose cultural background is same or different from the Mexican context, so that it could have an approach to the conception of sexuality in ancient times through the iconographic, symbolic and mythological motifs I work with, giving an innovative colorful twist that welcomes the spectator in a playful and even childlike manner. Thus, this project is directed towards all kinds of audience: art students, artists, historians, anthropologists, queer people, non-binary bodies and curious people who like to know more about the ancient Mexican visions on sexuality.

Interview with Rurru Mipanochia

Written by Andreana Donahue

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? What were some early influences?

Well, that’s hard to say, I guess things just flow away. I have many influences from some women in my family to different artists. When I was a child, I always really liked drawing, and coloring those little coloring books for children. My mom always bought me colors and let me draw on the walls, my father and she never got pissed off about that. Mom also gave my sister and I a lot of very cool storybooks that her work used to gift her for Christmas or Children’s Day. I remember I was mesmerized watching illustrations of them and creating stories with my sis about some that were in English that we did not understand. My favorites were The Pied Piper of Hamelin with Kate Greenaway illustrations, The Little Tin Soldier with S. Baraldi illustrations, The little Match-Seller with Anne Anderson illustrations and Rumpelstinski with Edward Gorey illustrations, among others.

When I was little, we used to live at my grandmother’s house, where some of my mother’s sisters and their families lived. Very frequently they used to tell paranormal anecdotes about spirits that roamed the house or events related to ghosts that they have experienced. My grandma also used to tell us stories about her small town where there were fire balls as witches or nahuales in the night and other spirits. My sis and I always were very excited because we heard those stories that many times, we ended up trying to draw them. I think that around that time I discovered my passion for trying to capture stories with drawings. Once when I was already a teenager, I was talking with my grandmother (some aunts call her Rurru) about how perhaps I would like to study art, she at that moment took out of her sweater bag a little bird drawn on a napkin with clumsy strokes but that showed a good capacity for observation. Then she told me that if she could have had the opportunity to continue studying, she would’ve liked to be a painter or a veterinarian (she only finished elementary school). My mother also liked to draw a lot, she was able to access the public University and studied to become a Dental Surgeon. Although once while talking, she showed me her notes from the University with many drawings of dental and skull anatomy (very good ones I can say) and told me that many times she made (and charged a little for it) the drawings of her classmates’ University notes to be able to buy her dental work instruments.

In the beginning I wanted to be a writer and book illustrator, but I didn't feel very good at writing at the end and I didn't think I was very good at drawing either, but drawing and painting somehow calmed my anxiety and has helped me in many other aspects of my life, like Louis Bourgeois said “Art is a guaranty of sanity”. When I entered the public university to pursue my degree in Visual Arts, the truth is that I still had many technical deficiencies, as now, and it is normal, we never stop learning and improving techniques and modes of representation. And one of the things that I liked about artistic expression are the different ways of seeing and capturing one or more realities, from our different contexts and perspectives. I like that in addition to functioning as cathartic therapy, it can be used as a political tool, from where we can question, disrupt, try to destroy, rebuild and put into question any system, knowledge, "reality" that is imposed on us as unique and unappealable…

Other early influences when I was around 18 to 23 years old were Japanese erotic art Shunga, Eitako Kobayashi, Hokusai, Ero-Guro, Toshio Saeki, Suehiro Maruo, Graciela Iturbide, Saturnino Herrán, Gerda Wegener, Egon Schiele, Aubrey Beardsley, Tomi Ungerer, David Lynch cartoon animation Dumbland, Kay Nielsen, Gustave Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, Jan Toroop, Henry Darger, ancient Mesoamerican Amoxtli (codex), Mesoamerican mythology, Voynich Codex, etc, Annie Sprinkle, Louise Bourgeois, etc…

Where are you currently based and what initially attracted you to working in this community? Are there any aspects of this specific place that have surfaced in your work?

To be honest, it is a long, long story why I ended up here, where I’m based now, but at the end I applied for a scholarship in this place for a master degree and I got it, so that was cool…the thing that attracted me the most is the mythology in Basque County, specially the one surrounded “witchcraft” and telluric feminine divinities such as the Sorginas, Lamias and Mari and some rites like the Akelarres which are not vey on the surface today though.

I think that what has enriched my work the most and that has made me grow as a person, are all the non-Western women that I have met in this territory. It is true that there are some of us who have come with more or less privileges than others, and that there are some who go through other hard experiences much more, but what I liked the most is the community and support network so close that has been created in different aspects. Furthermore, they are all very powerful and highly politicized people. This has been a process and will continue to be a very arduous process of deconstruction, where I have reviewed my own attitudes, words, behaviors, thoughts that inadvertently perpetuate the colonial violence still in force and of which we sometimes do not realize. In addition, I have become more responsible about the use of my words and how to approach certain issues from other perspectives.

Can you tell us about your studio space? What are some of the most crucial aspects of a studio that make it workable for you?

Well, I create where I live, it doesn’t matter if it’s a room where I sleep; but now, that I have a bigger space I installed the living room as “my studio”. I can work anywhere, as long as I have all my things neat, clean, there is coffee, tea, cold beer, a table, a chair, walls, if there is good lighting and if I have music. Most of the time I like to work alone. Although if I feel comfortable with other people I can work in peace. The thing is I really like gossip, and if I’m with someone I really get distracted (and distract others) by talking a lot and I don’t focus well on what I’m doing. Silence is very important to me sometimes because I use to read a lot and make a lot of notes to get ideas before I start a new piece.

What is a typical day like?

It depends, but most of the time, I’m working on freelance jobs, then go back working many hours on a piece, I read, do some research, write, take notes, chill, write and send emails, more freelance jobs, watch some movies, do some stretching, etc.

What gets you in a creative groove? What puts a damper on your groove?

Reading, watching movies, having materials I work with… I don’t know how to explain it but sometimes I have like a creative impulse, it is like an energy inside of me, like anxiety or something like that makes me not to stop drawing, doing researching or doing video animation. On the other hand, if I am going through a very bad moment, I cannot produce or flow. I get stuck. I mean there is a kind of depression feelings that makes you or push you to produce and create, but there is another that just makes you feel down.

What criteria do you follow for selecting materials? Do you prefer to maintain a narrow focus or work across diverse media? How do you navigate the limitations and possibilities that result from this path?

I prefer to use amate paper for most of my pieces as the main medium, since, according to what I have read, in Mesoamerican times it was one of the elements with which amoxtli or codex were made (in addition to deer skin and maguey fiber and later in the "novohispano" on European paper), today in some areas of Otomí culture it continues to maintain that magical ritual characteristic. I also like to use acrylic paintings as they tend to dry quickly and have a very glossy finish. In this way, resuming the taste for luminous finishes that the anthropologist Élodie Dupey says could have been the aesthetic canon at that time. And that today we can see in all our full of color land.

I do not use pigments made by hand like those used in Mesoamerica, because the finish, for my taste, is a bit opaque, and I also intend to emphasize just the resurgence of the energies that I shape in our times from the link with current materials such as fluorescent acrylic paints with amate paper.

It is true that I do not always use amate paper, this is because it is a material that is only available in a small town in Mexico where they continue to make it by hand. In this case, I usually use 200-gram Fabriano paper, which I like for its light porosity and good absorption. Also, when I have not been able to acquire any of these supports, I have come to use Bond or Kraft paper, which are much cheaper, which is more within my reach. Kraft or bond paper, are very cheap papers and tend to be very thin and it is difficult when you use glazes when painting, because it can be damaged or break quickly. Then you can throw away the work of 10 or more hours in a while. For me the most important thing is not to stop producing, creating, so in these cases I use what I have at hand. Although it is true that if we think in strict terms within the art market, that tends to be a problem for some collectors.

I really like using digital video and video animation as a support as well, because it is right there where I can give more life to what I am trying to capture. I also think it is wonderful to create that network between ancestral knowledge together with current technological elements.

Can you walk us through your overall process? How would you describe your approach to manipulating materials? What about decision-making and editing?

For me, all my work in general continues to be an exercise for the realization of future pieces and a personal process. I'm still not satisfied and I know that I have a lot to learn yet and unlearn even more.

My creative process begins from the moment I have different experiences in life, when I visit exhibitions, I swallow cinematography, literary, graphic, sound, oral and daily life images and experiences. All of this coupled with hours of research on the topic I want to talk about. Learn symbols, color, meanings, archetypes, myths, legends, some dreams, cosmogony and try to get a little closer to that world that is still in force but that was tried to take away from us. The rest happens alone, sometimes I meet people (from Aby Ayala) with whom I talk or share moments and then I think, wow, this person archetypally resembles such energy, it gives me that feeling. Divinities are still alive. So, I draw those people, either in the form of squiggles or in a more naturalistic way. I try to represent them with the energy with which they vibrate to me. Sometimes I make sketches, but most of the time I just stand in front of the paper or the computer and start creating.

With the drawings, at the end, I usually take photographs of them and then clean them a bit in photoshop, I make the background flatter and highlight some lines, since I usually make fanzines, stickers or prints with them. Sometimes I make animated gifs in photoshop with some, although lately, the past few years, I have abandoned my social networks a lot.

Regarding the videos, first I set up a stage, I put lighting that I like or it could be outdoors and I try to transform myself into the energies that I want to embody. I record everything and then edit in premiere. With the video animations, I use photoshop, premiere, and last, I make the songs, or well, experimental noises to better set them in Garage band.

Can you talk about some of the ongoing interests, imagery, and concepts that have informed your process and body of work over time? How do you anticipate your work progressing in the future?

I am mainly inspired by the Mesoamerican myths and rites that are related to sexuality before colonization, since although it can be read in some chronicles and writings that homosexuality was punishable by death in the case of the Aztec or Mexica civilization, except that for example the man who penetrated was not punished if not the penetrated, or some other exceptions. Several texts and Researchers on the subject have found that the Huasteca, Mixteca/Zapoteca Mayan and Otomí civilizations were much more open in terms of the conception of how they lived and experienced their sexual life. This can also be seen in various pre-Columbian sculptures, in the few codices that survived before colonization, and in some New Hispanics codex. As well as direct from the sources of the chroniclers. That if it is true, that the Spanish chroniclers soak them with their Catholic vision, reviewing them carefully we can get an idea of how they lived. I also study in depth the costumes and body painting of how each of the deities or energies related to sexuality was represented, such as Tlazoltéotl, Ixchel, Xochiquetzal, Xochipilli, Huehuecoyotl, Tezcatlipoca, Xolotl, Nanahuatzin, Macuilxóchitl ... and the animals that they related to them. Likewise, I navigate a bit over the writings of some researchers who touch on the subject of the conception of gender.

So, between the texts, the researches and the sculptural and graphic evidence that exist, I am shaping my pictorial world. Within this process, decolonial theories have been very important. Also, queer theory, in this way I try not only to capture these myths, rites and deities as something that was, but is still latent, because although they tried and continue trying to annihilate us, we are these energies as the deities that are still in force and incarnate, with our "abnormal" bodies and which are not supposed to exist or enjoy according to the norm. We are those bodies that are here occupying the spaces that we are not supposed to occupy.

I would like to delve much more into photography and video in the future.

Do you pursue any collaborations, projects, or careers in addition to your studio practice? If so, can you tell us more about those projects, and are there connections between your studio practice and these endeavors?

I generally try to participate in any way with some decolonial collectives that I have met where I’m based. I think it is important to work collectively and make a strong politicized network of individuals to try to achieve a change, no matter how tiny. Let go of our egos and begin to form a community to disrupt in different ways this colonial / patriarchal system that has us crushed. Of course, the road is long and there is a long way to go, but collectively I am sure we can and that is why it is important to appear and show ourselves in the various places that we are not supposed to occupy. Because they want us to be resented and that is why we have to shout louder and occupy all the spaces that tell us we cannot.

I know I have a long way to go to decolonize myself and I will never finish doing it, but I am trying to be as coherent as I can in both my life and my work, as far as I can. Of course, I am human being and I get wrong sometimes.

I read that in Mesoamerica the Tlacuilos, who were the ones who made the Amoxtli, did not usually represent themselves individually, their works were not attributed to a specific person, but rather that they were part of the community that made them. That was really cool to me. I would like to get to that point one day; On the other hand, here, there is my individualistic (western) ego that makes me sign as Rurru Mipanochia.

As an excuse (and I don’t have to excuse) I could cite in some way the phrase already quoted many times of Carol Hanisch "the personal is political".

As a result of the pandemic, many artists have experienced limited access to their studios or loss of exhibitions, income, or other opportunities. Has your way of working (or not working) shifted significantly during this time? Are there unexpected insights or particular challenges you’ve experienced?

Fortunately, my studio is in my living room, so I have been able to work during the strongest moments of the pandemic, but in terms of loss of exhibitions I have had several, which has generated a loss of income, I have also lost many fanzine festivals, which is where I also usually move my work in the form of a fanzine, poster, stickers, etc. So, I was basically surviving on extra jobs and savings from the last few works I sold. Then just in the boom of the pandemic my computer broke down (which is my main work tool) and fortunately very kind people helped me and supported me with a gofundme campaign that I organized to buy a new one. Right now, I'm just waiting to get any kind of job to stabilize myself a bit.

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music—that are important to you?

The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa, This bridge called my back: Writtings by Radical Woman of Colour, Amoxtli, pre-Columbian sex sculptures, Jorge Reyes music, I like photography in El Escapulario, a movie from 1968 directed by Servando González, and Macario, a movie from 1960 directed by Roberto Gavaldón. Tristan e Isolda by Tilsa Tsuchiya, Teresa Burga artwork.

Who are some contemporary artists you’re excited about? What are the best exhibitions you’ve seen in recent memory?

Cruz Emilia’s work, Sandra Monterroso Performances, Marcelo Masagao’s serie “Homens Brancos”, etc… Few years ago I visited Tomi Ungerer Museum, that was cool. And recently I saw a Leonora’s Carrington Virtual exhibit about early works. A Louise Bourgeois Online exhibition about her creative process to fight anxiety and her inner demons.

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?

My Grandma (mom side), who was from a very small town in Mexico (San Antonio Yondejé, Timilpan) and moved to Mexico City alone at the age of thirteen or something looking for a “better opportunity”, when I was like sixteen once told me: “Nunca te olvides de tus raíces ni de donde vienes”. And I don’t because I destroy and re build with that what I do not agree in some aspects and I only take the positive.

And my Dad once told me: “Como tu doctor, te recomiendo tomar todas las mañanas tomarte una pastilla de me vale verga”. That helped me a lot when I used to worry about destructive criticism.

What are you working on in the studio right now? What’s coming up next for you?

Now I am finishing a series of portraits and shaping a series of photographs that I have in mind. I also want to finish some drawing pieces for future exhibition in Germany.

Anything else you would like to share?

If you like my work and want to support me, don't forget to follow me on social media. Although I have abandoned them lately. Thank you for the space.

To find out more about Rurru Mipanochia check out her Instagram and website.