For Latino Artists in Sci-Fi Show, Everyone’s an Alien

By JORI  FINKE, New York Times. RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The shiny steel space capsule, a 12-sided metal contraption, looked more like a theatrical prop than anything truly orbit-worthy. And it was getting crowded inside. A heavy desk, bookshelf and fireplace — all made out of steel — lined one wall. Still to come was a metal trunk. “If I had to go in a space capsule because I couldn’t live on earth anymore, I’d want it to feel like a home,” said the capsule’s creator, the El Salvador-born Los Angeles artist Beatriz Cortez, who spot-welded the futuristic spacecraft and its furniture, giving them unexpected texture. Her steel panels have visible bumps that evoke the

“If I had to go in a space capsule because I couldn’t live on earth anymore, I’d want it to feel like a home,” said the capsule’s creator, the El Salvador-born Los Angeles artist Beatriz Cortez, who spot-welded the futuristic spacecraft and its furniture, giving them unexpected texture. Her steel panels have visible bumps that evoke the repujado metalwork of Spanish colonial artists. Elsewhere she added steel lumps that resemble river rocks — a basic construction material used by native cultures. “We always imagine indigenous people being part of our past,” she said, article continues

 

Beatriz Cortez with her hand-welded “Memory Insertion Capsule” at the University of California, Riverside. Credit: Nathaniel Wood for The New York Times