Cruz Ortiz

USA

I want the one I can’t have and its driving me mad.

— The Smiths

There are certain advances in society and culture that are more like illusions created to keep the ‘withouts’ from really feeling self-determination. This is the driving whirlwind behind my work, it’s the romance of keeping your eye on the prize. I am a Chicano living after the hangover of the civil rights movement in the United States. The game has changed, but it’s the same circus. Today people are toyed with more than ever, just as before. It is the love-hate relationship with ‘the American dream’ that has me investigating, as if it were a romance gone wrong.

My work includes the use of multi-media to tell the story of episodic romantic cheesy love adventures. A strategy that I often utilise is manipulating ‘love gone bad’ lyrics taken from diverse music styles, such as country, punk, mariachi, and Tex-Mex ballads. These heart-wrenched lyrics reflect a personified love affair with the truths and lies of access and power. I also employ the traditions of mass-consumption and its interpretations by the poor working class, such as intrusive posters, out-of-context sign art, and bootleg videos. Most of these objects and installation manifestations incorporate my transient punk character or alter-ego named ‘Spaztek’ – a down-on-his-luck everyman who is always in love with the one he can’t have. Spaztek is a mythical figure that fantasises on utopian dreams, but his harsh rejections only reflect the manufactured illusion.

(Text: OPEN e v + a catalogue, 2005)