Surrealism Part - Fear of the Other

Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) is proud to present a multi-media experience created by Laura Rodriguez in January entitled, Surrealism Part - Fear of the Other along with collaborating artists Levi Ryan, Scotty Flores, Becca Blackwell, and Ashlyn Fletcher this January. Through a Surrealist lens, Laura Rodriguez will create multi-media experiences that explore the complex history of LGBTQ and minority persecution in the past and present. Through choreographed performance and special objects especially created for the show, the space will be in constant transformation and activation throughout the month. Audience participation is encouraged.

In our current political climate, the LGBTQ and Minority communities are being threatened. Racism, xenophobia, homophobia and social injustices are rearing their heads to suppress, oppress and endanger such communities. With so many issues at hand, Laura Rodriguez will utilize creativity as the weapon. 

Pink and black triangles will be a strong visual component in Surrealism Part - Fear of the Other. These reference her intimate examination of Germany during WWII when Nazis’ persecuted millions of Jews and minorities to uphold an ideology to purify German society and uphold the Aryan race. Paragraph 175 of German Criminal Code 1935 was extended to persecute the LGBTQ community during this time and utilized the Pink and Black triangle symbols to define those in concentration camps.

Rodriguez’s work is inspired by the surrealist works of Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Remedios Varo, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali. Ridriguez adeptly employs the mysteriousness of a surreal landscape for a beautiful visual organization of layers, meanings and juxtapositions to explore these shocking truths.

Surrealism Part – Fear of the Other is dedicated to the LGBTQ and minority communities that have been persecuted, banned together and pushed back. The show's creation intends to build awareness and propagate a reconstruction for the betterment of humanity.

Exhibition overview from museum website