"Forgotten Stories,
Remarkable Lives"
By Stephanie Wright Hession
Every year since the
age of 12, Hector Dionicio
Mendoza has painted a portrait of what he
imagines his twin brother, Jesus, might look like at his age. Jesus died as a
newborn, and recently, Mendoza created and dedicated an altar to his brother.
Mendoza is one of a
group of artists displaying altars and installations for the exhibition,
"Forgotten Stories, Remarkable Lives: Días de los Muertos 2012." It's
part of the Oakland Museum of
California's 18th annual Days of the Dead,
which remembers deceased loved ones and celebrates their lives.
"I am doing my
own version of an altar," says Mendoza, an Oakland resident who works as a
visual and public art instructor at California State University, Monterey Bay. "I'm actually doing a site-specific installation
that includes a small table - and it has an element that relates to the
traditional altar - but I'm doing more of a contemporary view of what an altar
would be."
A mixed-media piece
incorporating wood and insulation foam, it centers upon the ebony-colored
table, which acts as the canvas for the first painting of Jesus, depicting him
as a crying infant and completed in the style of the Old Masters. Peering through a small, circular mirror placed on the
floor beneath the table allows the viewer to see the second portrait, which
Mendoza painted when he turned 21. Above the altar, vertical strips of vividly
colored paper represent a modern take on papel picado, the traditional
perforated banners used for Día de los Muertos.
Altar by Hector Dionicio Mendoza. Photo courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
"I definitely
wanted to do a piece that paid homage to my twin brother but also for the piece
to be more open and dedicated to the los angelitos, the children who
died young in life," says Mendoza, who was born in Uruapan, Mexico, grew
up in King City (Monterey County) and earned his master of fine arts degree
from the Yale University
School of Art.
Intertwining elements
of California history, "Forgotten Stories, Remarkable Lives" tells
the tales of ordinary people and their contributions, which often go unnoticed.
It also features the work of Adrian Arias, Cece Carpio, Brett Cook, Rob-O, Imelda Martinez and Jenifer Wofford, as well as community altars by museum docents and
students from the Melrose Leadership
Academy in Oakland and
Tennyson High School in Hayward.
Altar by Adrian Arias (above). Photo courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
Altar by Cece Carpio (above). Photo courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California.
For their altar,
artists Rob-O and Martinez focus on agricultural workers from the Bracero
Program, which permitted temporary contract laborers from Mexico to work in the
United States and ended in the 1960s. For the piece, Rob-O created an elaborate
sugar skull embellished with fine details and crimson roses. Through her
research, Martinez discovered that both sets of her grandparents participated
in the program.
"In organizing
the show, I wanted to honor people in the sense that they make up California.
When thinking about that, the Oakland Museum's history collection is wonderful
because it really tries to take history and personalize it," says guest
curator Eduardo Pineda, the former museum educator for the Museum of the
African Diaspora and the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art.
"I find that's
the way to understand history," he continues. "We all are making
history every day."
Community celebration: noon-4:30 p.m. Sunday. Free
with museum admission. Exhibition runs through Dec. 9. 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Wednesday-Sunday. Free-$12. Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St.,
Oakland. (510) 318-8400. www.museumca.org.
