Absurdist Protest
Bay Area-based Chicanx artist Broobs aka Ruby Marquez makes mural portraits of black and brown victims of violence.
The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.
The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.
“ABSURDIST PROTEST” NORM: Using sly humor and cultural references to protest social injustices..
“ABSURDIST PROTEST” FORMS: Subverting Catholic iconography. Tackling social injustice with humor and weirdness. Mexican and Mexican-American artists using sly wit, and reappropriating Mexican cliches.
From a 2020 study of “Mexican-ness” codes — as perceived in US culture.